oatmeal raisin cookies - obvi not for my boyfriend

My boyfriend claims he has eaten so many oatmeal raisin cookies in his lifetime that he will no longer eat any more. I find this extremely hard to believe; but I listen to his requests, and I have never even offered to make him oatmeal raisin cookies. Luckily for me, his sister who came home for Thanksgiving, decided to bake some to take home for her friends. Finally! Now I have an excuse to bake oatmeal raisin cookies! She asked me to help and oversee baking, which I gratefully accepted.

We used the recipe found on the back of the Quaker Oats box. I generally think that big companies have awesome recipes on their boxes, seeing as how they want their product to be the best. I'm sure they spend tons of money to get chefs or whoever to find the best recipe, but I haven't tried enough recipes to make that judgment yet.




So since I wasn't the one baking this time, I took the opportunity to take photos of each step- something that I've always wanted to do. I'm a little disappointed at the lighting though, and I typically make it a rule to not bake at night where the lighting is too dim.


We baked these Sunday morning right before she left. It wasn't such a smart idea baking it so close to the time she was supposed to leave, but we wanted to make sure they were fresh. The first batches we baked came out slightly burnt at the bottom, yet still gooey in the center. We adjusted the time and size for future batches, only to realize we didn't have enough dough to make enough good cookies.


Being the perfectionist I am, I told her we could whip up another batch in mere minutes. So we ran around the kitchen grabbing all the ingredients and quickly mixed them together. These batches came out much better and luckily we pulled out the last batch as her friend pulled in the driveway to pick her up.


What's even luckier (for me at least) is that she didn't have enough time to wait for the last batch to cool, so I took it upon myself to eat them for her. I know, I'm such a good friend. This last batch was the best, as it was crisp on the outside and extremely gooey in the center. I was just so happy to finally get the chance to bake these cookies.

---RECIPE---
Taken from the lid of a Quaker Oats Can (Not the same recipe they put on the Quaker Oats website).

ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1+1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups of Quaker Oats (we toasted one batch of these for about 20 minutes)
1 cup raisins (or 1 cup chocolate chips)

directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla extract; beat well.
3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well.
4. Slowly stir in oats and then raisins.
5. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute on sheet, remove to wire rack.

amount:
Makes about 4 dozen cookies. (We had to bake a second batch because there obvi wasn't 4 dozen cookies)