Oatmeal Joy

The past few weeks I've been baking for my moms faculty meetings on Wednesday mornings. I've made some muffins, fabulous buttermilk banana bread, and I even tried my hand at a Tres Leches Cake recipe from Food Network Magazine to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. Well it was a Tres Disaster. I briefly debated buying more ingredients and testing the recipe again with the hope that it would come out superb the second time around but I quickly realized that that probably wouldn't be the case. So what did I do? I baked oatmeal cookies. Not very festive, but definitely more delicious than any Tres Leches cake (I stand by this statement). 

Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Joy of Baking

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup raisins (or dried cranberries, dried cherries, chocolate chips, etc..)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Beat the unsalted butter and sugar until creamy and smooth in the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer. 
3. Add egg and vanilla extract, beat until well combined. 
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add flour mixture to the cream mixture and beat until well incorporated.

5. Stir in the oats and raisins.  

6. For large cookies, use 1/4 cup of batter and space the cookies about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Then wet your hand and flatten the cookies slightly with your fingers.

7. Bake for about 12 - 15 minutes at 350 degrees F or until light golden brown around the edges but still soft and a little wet in the centers. 

These were absolutely delicious although I was only able to eat one since they were for others. It was a good practice in self control. The cinnamon really gives these cookies such a wonderful burst of flavor, I'm very impressed.  My mom said that all of the teachers raved about them. I might have to make a batch for myself tonight :)