Moist Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Today, I baked these awesome things next to PiyoPiyo (: I say their awesome, cos their the first cookies I've baked which I've actually liked! And ate five or six of. Or maybe even more but my brain is in denial.

The best part - the dough tastes like that of Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk! My FAVOURITE absolute favourite ice cream flavour ever. Which is unfortunately, not found in Singapore anymore (or if you know where they can be found, give me a heads up!) They also do not require any greasing of cookie sheets. Or non-stick cookie sheets. Or parchment paper! (:



These babies are crisp on the outside, and chewy on the inside!! So for the first time ever, I'm gonna share a recipe which I would prefer to have kept a secret (haha)

Photo of that awesome cookie dough first (: So tempting and almost better than the cookie itself. And oh well, I've made some healthier changes to convince myself the calories are worth it (:

Jessica's Moist Oatmeal Raisin Cookies (:

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour (can be substituted with wholemeal)
1 cup wholemeal flour
2 cups oatmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup filled with white sugar and molasses sugar (can substitute white with light brown sugar)
¾ cup butter
2 eggs
5 tbsps honey
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup raisins (optional, or add as much as you want)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, stir dry ingredients together – flour, oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
3. In a larger bowl, cream sugar (white and molasses combined) and butter together. Then, beat the eggs, honey and vanilla extract together. Add into creamed mixture. Mix well.
4. Add in dry ingredients slowly, mixing after each addition. Subsequently add in raisins.
5. Drop onto ungreased cookie tray in heaped teaspoonfuls.
6. Bake for 10 minutes (soft and chewy) to 12 minutes (if you like 'em crispy) or until slightly brown. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

Makes about 50 cookies. Hope you like it! (:

Oh, and here are some tips, for making cookies the way you like it:

Chewy Cookies
Use melted butter instead of creaming cold butter.
Remove cookies when they look slightly underdone.
Use a high ratio of brown sugar to white sugar, or substitue a little liquid sweetener such as honey, molasses, or corn syrup for the same amount of sugar.
Use more egg yolk instead of whole eggs.
Reduce the amount of baking soda or baking powder. These are leaveners which lend the cookie a more cakey texture.

Thin, Crispy Cookies
Use butter as the main fat. It has a lower melting point than shortening, so the cookie will spread out thinner.
Use more white sugar than brown sugar. You could just use all white sugar.
Bake cookies until well done.

Puffy, Cakey Cookies
Use shortening instead of butter.
Make sure that you mix the shortening well with the sugars until it is very light and fluffy.
Use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour.
Use more egg.
Use baking powder instead of baking soda for leavening. It makes the cookie puff up more.

(PS creaming the butter and sugar by hand is so much more fun, and lets you burn off some calories so you get to eat more cookies later)