a classic with a twist

​I bake a batch, sometimes two, of cookies every week. My husband’s tolerance for sugar and chocolate has changed over the past few years. He now finds Toll House Chocolate Chips too sweet for his taste. So last week, I made him Amy’s Oh So Very Best Cookies which are oatmeal cookies minus the chocolate chips in the recipe.

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​While perusing through the NYTimes Cooking app, I found Melissa Clark’s recipe for Classic Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies. I’ve also came across some recipes with cinnamon, but none with nutmeg and ground ginger or ground cardamom. This piqued my interest as well as the fact that Ms. Clark describes these cookies as chewy, which I husband prefers.
 
For the recipe you’ll need unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, ground cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, either ground cardamom or ground ginger, rolled outs (not instant) and raisins.
 
As I already had a few tins of cookies on hand, I made tray a of nine cookies for sampling and saved the rest of the batter. The kitchen was filled with the warm, inviting scent of cinnamon. The cookies were scrumptious! They were chewy in the center and had a lovely butterscotch flavor from the dark brown sugar. The cookies had a nice balance of flavors and sweetness. When I asked my husband which oatmeal cookie he preferred, Amy Oh’s Very Best or these, he would only say that both were good. I prefer this new recipe because of the spices. However, try them for yourself, both recipes can be found on my recipe page. 

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​Classic Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
By Melissa Clark
The New York Times/NYT Cooking
 
Yield: 3 dozen cookies
Time: 45 minutes
 
INGREDIENTS
 
1 cup/227 grams (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, more for pans
1 cup/200 grams dark brown sugar, packed
⅓ cup/66 grams granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon/15 milliliters vanilla extract
1 ½ cups/187 grams all-purpose flour
​​¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom or ground ginger
3 cups/270 grams rolled oats (not instant)
1 ½ cups/225 grams raisins
 
PREPARATION
 

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two large cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper or reusable silicone liners.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter in a large bowl until creamy. Add brown and granulated sugars, then beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Then, beat in vanilla extract.
3. In a separate bowl, use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom. Set mixer on low speed, and beat flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins.
4. Spoon out dough by large tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, leaving at least 2 inches between each cookie.
5. Bake until cookie edges turn golden brown, about 9 to 13 minutes. Centers will still be quite soft, but they will firm up as the cookies cool. Cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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