Oatmeal Cookies Recipe with All the Fixin’s!
Oatmeal Cookies
My all-time favorite! I am obsessed with oats, and jump on every chance to use them, both in sweet and savory recipes. Take a look at my steel-cut oat soup, and at my Oats Pots de Creme, to take but two glowing examples.
This gem of a recipe does all my bidding:
Added nuts and seeds, gluten-free-friendly, vegan-friendly, different kinds of oil, you name it!
I use the recipe in a dozen permutations and get different oatmeal cookies each time, all delicious, fun and exciting. These oatmeal cookies are so crunchy you can crumble them and use them as granola (in fact as often as not, this is the way I make my granola, believe it or not I find it easier that way) over yogurt. Couldn’t live without them! Don’t even bother with a mixer: All ingredients aboard, mix, that’s the whole story! Here’s just one variation right here for you, one of my favorites: Coconut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies Splurge
Occasionally I have an urge to eat more of them than I promised myself. In this case, I forgo a whole meal so I can splurge and have four or five of them instead, with a cup of tea. Then I conveniently call them lunch: They are real food!
They freeze beautifully!
Worried you won’t be able to keep your hands off my (OK, your) cookies? Store them out of sight, in the freezer. No need to wait for them to defrost: Cookies never freezer solid!
Look at all I do with my Oatmeal Cookies!
It is really amazing how much you can do with this “mother” recipe. All variations are included. Scroll down!
- Make them Gluten-Free! Maker your own gluten-free flour blend, or buy a good quality gluten free flour mix!
- Make them sugar-free (this is what I do)
- Play with the spices
- Use different oils!
- Play with the nuts or seeds
- Sneak in as many super healthy ingredients as you can think of. Perfect school snack. Yes, your children will love you even more!
- Double the batch and send some as gifts. I cannot tell you how often I include them in care packages.
- They travel well. Take them to work or on the road. They will beat any store bought dessert you might settle for anytime!
- Ice cream sandwiches. Any good quality ice cream will be fantastic as a “sandwich” filling with these cookies. Mix and match: so much FUN!
Ingredients
- 2 eggs (Vegan: substitute 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds mixed with 1/3 cup warm water)
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ cup packed brown sugar or Sucanat (sugar watchers: use 1/4 cup sucanat and 1 cup brown erythritol in all)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups old-fashioned oats (gluten-free: make sure it is clearly stated on the container)
- 1 cup flour: all-purpose, whole wheat pastry, spelt, lupin or gluten-free
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1½ teaspoons allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and combine thoroughly by hand. Drop by heaping teaspoons on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, 1 inch apart.
Flatten them slightly with your hand. Bake one sheet at a time. Bake 12 minutes. The texture will be crisp. Leave one baked cookie out for a few minutes to cool: If it is not perfectly crisp, return the cookies in the oven to crisp 1 to 2 more minutes. Store at room temperature in a cookie tin. Makes about 4 dozen.
Variations: Short and sweet selection please!
- Use flax oil or coconut oil or other nut oil instead of vegetable oil.
- Throw in 1 cup of unsweetened grated coconut.
- Throw in ½ cup nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, etc.) or seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, flax, poppy, chia, hemp, etc.).
- Throw in ½ cup raisins, or other dry fruit, larger ones chopped.
- Play with different spices. Cardamom, ginger, nutmeg.
- Throw in 1 cup best-quality dark chocolate chips. In this case, lower the sugar in the basic recipe to 1 cup total.
- Cranberry lovers take note: While fresh cranberries last, look as I do, for exciting ways to use them. Frozen and thawed will work too. Use the basic recipe, and throw in 2 cups fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped in a food processor, and 2 cups chocolate chips.
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