I have been anxious to get back to baking, however spare time has been sparse. This week though I got a new camera, and decided no matter what, that I would set aside some time this weekend to bake and take (photos that is). With literally millions of options on the WWFB (world-wide food blogs) I came across this recipe on one of my favorites, Get Off Your Butt & Bake. This is an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, but it is put together in a way I haven’t seen before. That is you boil the raisins and the flour is added with the butter and sugar prior to adding the soda and salt… The aroma of the spices in there was tantalizing and made the house small like Christmas… which by the way is coming sooner than you would believe.

But I digress. I did change-up a few small items, but otherwise stuck to the original recipe. My husband and youngest daughter were my taste testers. After the first bite, my husband had this like “pregnant pause”, which alarmed me. Then he stated, “Those are good, really good!” My daughter said the same and didn’t even complain about the raisins (which she swears she hates).

So here is the recipe and some practice photos taken with the new Rebel T2i (which so far is amazing).

Mom’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Slightly adapted from Get Off Your Butt & Bake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup water
• 1 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup softened butter, cubed*
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 eggs*
• 2 cups original oats
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips (or nuts)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp each: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom
• Sea salt to top if desired

Begin by combing the raisins and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer on low for 15 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely. Once cool, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the raisin mixture with the butter, sugar, eggs, oatmeal,  flour and chocolate chips (or nuts) and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon and/or your hands. Add the remaining ingredients until well blended and drop by tablespoons onto parchment or non stick pan, sprinkle some sea salt on cookie tops if desired. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on baking sheet just long enough to not fall apart 1 – 2 minutes.

*Note: in halving the recipe I had to use 1 1/2 eggs. I used my kitchen scale, but you could just open one egg, beat it lightly, and use half of it.

My changes in the cookies were:

1. I halved the recipe and mixed it with my hands, not a mixer
2. I used 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup shortening because I ran out of butter!
3. I used chocolate chips instead of nuts
4. I didn’t have allspice, so I used cardamom