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[hi19hi19]

I ****ING LOVE BAKING

THE BEST OATMEAL COOKIE

The key to getting a crisp-on-the-edge and soft-in-the-middle cookie is the dark brown sugar. The dark brown sugar retains and absorbs moisture from the air after cooking and makes the cookie soft and flexible in the center.

1¼ cup flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1¾ cup rolled oats (old-fashion style: NOT the 1 minute cooking type)
Optional: 2 cups walnuts, not toasted
12 tablespoons (1½ sticks) butter (un-salted, soft but still cool)
1½ cup packed dark brown sugar (light brown sugar doesn’t work)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350° and adjust 2 racks to center positions
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper
Whisk flour, baking powder, soda, and salt in a bowl
In second bowl mix oats & nuts
In a mixer beat butter and sugar until mixed (about 1 min.) scrape down sides
Add egg and vanilla, mix about 30 seconds
With mixer running at slow speed, add flour mix from first bowl until just combined (30 seconds)
Still at slow speed, add nuts and oats until just combined, stir by hand a few times to be sure

Make ball with ¼ cup (measure this out, don’t approximate) of the cookie dough, roll briefly into a ball with your hand
Stagger 8 or 9 on each cookie sheet about 2 inches apart
Mash each down to 1 inch thick

Bake 8 min. then rotate each sheet and switch the top and bottom sheets
Bake about 6 min more. For soft cookies, the dough in the cracks will still be wet and shiny. For crisper edge cookie, cook a few minutes more, until faint brown on the very outside edge.

DO NOT OVERCOOK!
DO NOT OVERCOOK!
It may look like the cookies are underdone when you take them out of the oven but they will firm up as they cool

Cool the sheets of cookies on a wire rack for 5 min. then move cookies off the sheets to the racks to cool more

Makes 1½ dozen extremely large cookies


Enjoy!