Oatmeal Raisin Chai Spice Cookies

I've always thought of oatmeal raisin cookies as the health food of the cookie kingdom. I don't hesitate to grab a couple for breakfast, and when we go camping I like to take these along instead of granola bars. Up until now, I've used the recipe off of the oatmeal container (more or less), so I decided it was time to make some alterations and post my tweaked version for you to enjoy.


Note: much of the commercially-available brown sugar has been refined, and then molasses is added back in to create a more consistent product. Since I love molasses (molasses toast, anyone?) and have it on hand, I add it directly to my recipes as I see fit.

COOKIES! and milk. . . .and a classic book.

• 1¼ cup raw sugar
• 4 Tbsp (¼ cup) molasses
• 1 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• ¼ tsp ea cinnamon & coriander seed powder
• 1/8 tsp ea cardamom, ginger, cloves, allspice, white pepper, nutmeg & mace
• ½-1 tsp orange extract (or vanilla)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup raisins


Preheat oven to 350°F (app. 175°C*)
Line cookie sheets with parchment.
Cream sugar & butter thoroughly, then add one egg at a time.
Add spices, orange extract, baking soda, & salt. Beat until incorporated.
At this point I remove the bowl from my stand mixer, add the flour, oats & raisins and fold them in until all the dry ingredients are moist and evenly mixed.
Drop rounded tablespoons of the cookie dough onto a prepared cookie sheet. I flatten the dough slightly to a disc rather than a ball.
Bake for 9-10 minutes, until browned at the edges.
Note: The center of the cookies will still look shiny, but they will firm up after they are out of the oven. Removing them at this stage allows for moist and chewy oatmeal cookies, leaving them in until they look ‘done' usually makes for crunchy, less-flavorful cookies.


I usually bake 1-2 cookie sheets, and refrigerate the remaining dough. Over the course of the following week I will bake a sheet or two each night when I make dinner for a freshly baked treat, including a few extra for Dear Hubby's lunch the next day. They do keep fine, so if you want to, you can bake the entire batch and store them in an airtight container. If you are anything like us, they wont be around long enough to go bad. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_sugar 


*I use an online conversion chart and round up or down, as seems appropriate. Please adjust according to your judgement, and send me a message if you find an error. Thank you.