Oatmeal Dream Cookies
Oatmeal raisin cookies are the ultimate nostalgia cookie. Even if your grandma didn’t make them (mine didn’t) they feel like something a grandma would make. They’re warm, lightly spiced, with deep butterscotch undertones.
My recipe uses brown butter and a resting period to hydrate the oats. You can customize the size, from 1 tablespoon mounds to 4” wide cookies.
By using brown butter in a melted state the entire thing comes together in a bowl with a spoon, no mixer required.
But it turns out some of my friends are raisin haters, so I did what any sensible person would do and I made the Wheel of Mix-Ins.
This is a great base recipe to customize. If you don’t like raisins (looking at you, Kelly) you can leave them out or swap them with something else.
I like to think of the mixins like oatmeal toppings:
Pineapple, pecan, and caramel
Cardamon, cranberry, orange zest, and coconut
Dried blueberries with Earl Grey tea steeped in the butter
Dried cherries and white chocolate chips
Macadamia nuts
Hazelnuts and freeze dried raspberries
Ingredients
227 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks)
3 grams (1.5 teaspoon) ground Saigon cinnamon, such as Royal Cinnamon from Burlap & Barrel
15 grams (1 tablespoon) cold water
200 grams dark brown sugar
50 grams white sugar
100 grams fridge cold eggs (2 US Large)
15 grams vanilla extra (1 tablespoon)
180 grams all purpose flour (1-½ cups)
5 grams salt (1 teaspoon)
3 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
280 grams old fashioned oats (3 cups)
Notes on ingredients
Cinnamon
You can use whatever cinnamon you have on hand, but if you plan to make these often I would invest in some really good cinnamon. The flavour difference is dramatic and worth experiencing.
Cassia cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) is what you get at the grocery store labelled “cinnamon.” It is a hot/spicy cinnamon (like a cinnamon heart) that has a deeply warming flavour with some bitterness. I prefer using this for savoury applications.
Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), sometimes called true cinnamon, is sweeter and mellow, it has none of the spicy heat of Cassia. If you can’t find Saigon cinnamon, this is a good cinnamon for sweet applications. If you don’t like the heat of cinnamon this is for you.
Saigon cinnamon (Cinnamomum loureiroi) is what the cinnamon of your childhood dreams tastes like. It’s sweet, with a very deep flavour, and a powerful aroma you can smell through the entire house. It has no heat. Burlap & Barrel’s Royal Cinnamon is the best version I’ve ever tasted. This is the perfect cinnamon for desserts.
Oats
You want to use old fashioned oats for this recipe, but it can be confusing at the store since many oats can look the same.
Old fashioned oats will give you a balanced texture of a soft, crispy, chewy cookie.
Thick cut oats will give you a dry/cakey/crumbly, and the cookie dough may not come together.
Quick cooking oats (the kind you microwave for breakfast) won’t absorb enough moisture. The dough will be closer to batter and will make a thin, lacy, crispy cookie.
Steel cut oats won’t work at all. They won’t cook through and you’ll break a tooth.
Equipment
Baking sheets
Parchment paper or silicone mat
Fish spatula
Cooling rack
Cookie scoop (1/4 cup for 4” cookies)
A small and medium mixing bowl
A large heat-proof mixing bowl (such as Pyrex or ceramic)
Silicone spatula or wooden spoon
Small saucepan, ideally with a light colour bottom
Method
Get your dry ingredients together
In a small bowl, measure out your flour, salt, and baking powder. Whisk together and set aside.
In a medium bowl, measure out your oats and dry mix-ins, such as raisins, and set aside.
In a large heat-proof bowl, measure out your brown sugar, white sugar, and 1 tablespoon of water. Set aside.
Brown the butter
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. The butter will go through 2 foaming phases as it loses moisture, over the course of 5-10 minutes. After the first foaming phase, stir constantly to prevent milk solids from burning.
During this process the water in the butter is evaporating (butter is 80-84% fat, so 16-20% of the butter’s weight is water) and the milk solids are caramelizing. You need to stir constantly to prevent the milk solids from burning on the bottom of the pan.
The brown butter is done when it smells nutty, but not burnt, and has a rich brown colour like leather. Immediately remove the butter from the heat to stop cooking and move to a heat-proof bowl. Scrape out all the brown bits (unless they are burned).
If you have a pan with a white bottom, that is ideal for this process.
Bloom the spices
Transfer the butter to a large, heat-proof bowl to stop the cooking process. Immediately put the cinnamon into the hot butter. This step “blooms” the cinnamon. Many aromas in cinnamon are fat soluble, so the hot fat brings out the best in your cinnamon. Add the cold water to your butter, this replaces some of the water lost during the browning process.
Add the butter to your sugar bowl and stir to combine. Add the eggs and mix until homogenous. Add the vanilla.
Note: the mixture will still be warm, but not hot, at this stage. Egg whites cook at 140F. In my recipe testing, the butter has reduced to around 125F by the time eggs are added. If you’re worried about it, leave it for another 5-10 minutes to cool.
Adding cold eggs straight from the fridge will further reduce the temperature of the butter and create a more stable emulsion. If you are replacing an egg with a mix-in, like a banana, do that now.
Add the dry to the wet
Add the flour mix to the butter mix. Because there is so much fat and almost no water, you don’t need to worry about gluten development. Stir until no dry flour clumps remain.
Add the oats and dry mix-ins, like raisins, and fold until just combined. Depending on how much the butter has cooled, the texture of the dough may look very wet (warm butter) or very dry (cool butter). It will firm up as it cools.
Rest the dough
At this stage is very important to rest the dough for a minimum of 30 minutes at room temperature or up to 2 days in the fridge.
This does a few important things:
The oats begin to hydrate, absorbing water from the eggs for a more tender cookie
The flour begins to hydrate, creating more structure for the cookie dough to hold together
The cinnamon’s flavour compounds spread out into the oats, mellowing and deepening the flavour
The butter will firm up as it cools, leading to better cookie shapes. However if you’re using your hands to form cookies you might want to do that while the dough is very soft.
Scoop and bake
Pre-heat your oven to 350 F (325 convection). Depending on the final size of the cookie, you can adjust a few parameters.
For 4” wide cookies, use a ¼ cup cookie scoop, spaced 3 inches apart, and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the center is almost set. This makes around 12 cookies.
For 3” wide cookies, use a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, spaced 2 inches apart, and bake for 10-14 minutes, until the center is almost set. This makes around 24 cookies.
For 2” wide cookies, use 1tbsp of cookie dough, spaced 2 inches apart, and bake for 8-12 minutes, until the center is almost set. This makes around 40 cookies.
Cool completely on the baking sheet to ensure a crispy bottom, about 10 minutes. These are very tender when they first come out of the oven, so if you move them too soon they are going to break in half. Once cooled they will be easy to handle.
Keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Alternatively, freeze for up to 6 months. Scoop the dough onto a baking sheet that fits into your freezer. The cookie balls can be tightly packed. Freeze until solid then transfer to a freezer bag. To bake, bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before baking. If you are impatient, smash them down after 5 minutes.