Outstanding Oatmeal Cookies

Unlike the traditional oatmeal cookie that generally contains raisins, this recipe uses toasted pecans. It works well with raisins, but the toasted pecans put it over the top! The cookies are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle.

I’ve been making these oatmeal cookies for as long as I can remember. Unlike the traditional oatmeal cookie that generally contains raisins, this recipe uses toasted pecans. It works well with raisins, but the toasted pecans put it over the top! The cookies are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle.

Ingredients:

The ingredients include unsalted butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, eggs, water, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, all-purpose flour, rolled oats, and the star of the show – pecans.

Whenever I use pecans in cookie recipes, I always toast them first for 10 to 12 minutes at 350° F. This greatly enhances the flavor. If they are biggish pieces, I break the pecans up into smaller pieces once they’ve cooled.

Making the Dough:

As a starting point, I beat the room temperature butter on high with an electric mixer until it was creamy. This took several minutes.

Then I added both sugars to the butter, and continued beating it on high until the sugars were well incorporated.

Next, I added the eggs, water, and vanilla extract, and beat the mixture on high until it was light and fluffy. This took another couple of minutes.

Rather than mixing the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon with the flour, i.e., mixing the dry ingredients, I added these to the butter/sugar mixture and beat it on high until everything was well incorporated. I started doing this years ago when it occurred to me that the best way to ensure that the salt, etc., was evenly distributed was to beat it in with the wet ingredients as opposed to adding it to the flour. I do, however, sift the baking powder and baking soda in a small wire strainer because invariably, there are small lumps.

Now comes the addition of the flour which I beat into the mixture on low until it was well incorporated.

The oats and pecans were the final addition.

At this point, I switched to a wooden spoon to fold in the oats and pecans.

Making the Cookies:

Using a 1¾-inch ice cream scoop, I placed 8 dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet. As an aside, I use reusable parchment paper for just about everything that I bake. I cut the sheet to perfectly fit my rimmed baking sheet, and wash it with warm soapy water after its been used.

Before baking the cookies, I rolled each piece of dough into a ball, and flattened it to about ½-inch with my damp hand.

Into a preheated 350° F oven the cookies went for about 10 minutes, until they were golden brown. When they were done, I transferred the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe makes between 4 and 4½ dozen cookies. It is easily cut in half. However, what I usually do is to make the full recipe, but only bake part of the cookies. I form the rest of the dough into individual balls, freeze them in a single layer on a parchment lined baking sheet, and store the frozen balls in a ziploc bag in the freezer for a later use. That way, freshly baked cookies are a snap to make – just thaw, flatten, and bake!

These are my absolute favorite oatmeal cookie, and are actually better the next day, if they last that long. Yum!