Oatmeal

We are well into Fall now and Fall always brings back wonderful memories for me of awaking to the aroma of oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins simmering in the kitchen and coffee perking. Growing up, we kids had our bedrooms at the kitchen end of the house. Not only were the early morning breakfast cooking smells wonderful, so was that extra bit of heat from the wood burning cook stove that my parents used. Described by a few as a coffee snob, it actually took me quite a few years before I acquired a taste for coffee - but oatmeal, I've always loved that! After finishing my cup of freshly ground espresso beans brewed into frothed chocolate milk, I looked out the window at the maple tree with all its yellow and orange leaves this morning and felt nostalgic for the aroma of oatmeal. I decided that today I would bake cookies.I have used an oatmeal cookie recipe called Selma's Best Oatmeal Cookies since 1971 that I originally got from Peg Bracken's I Hate to Cook cookbook. Those oatmeal cookies are so very good, but they call for shortening. All I had on hand was butter. Then, noticing the recipe printed on the inside of the Quaker Oats box called Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and that they called for butter, I knew I was in business!Preferring an oatmeal cookie that tastes more like cinnamon than vanilla, I made a couple of modifications to the Quaker Oats recipe and omitted the vanilla all together, then added three times the amount of cinnamon. Three times more! Yes, the more cinnamon the better! Here is my version of the recipe after making my adaptations:

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

1 Cup Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 C Granulated Sugar

2 Eggs

1-1/2 Cups Unbleached Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

3 Cups Quaker Old Fashioned Oats

1 Cups Raisin

Heat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix until very well blended. Add the flour and stir until completely blended. Fold in the oatmeal and raisins. Roll dough into walnut sized balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Butter the bottom of a glass and dip it in sugar, then gently press the top of each ball of cookie dough down until just slightly flattened, re-dipping the buttered glass in the sugar between flattening each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack. These cookies remain slightly chewy after cooling and are absolutely delicious.

Putting most of the cookies into containers and freezing to share with friends on another day, my adapted cookie recipe turned out great and I sure enjoyed the wonderful oatmeal cinnamon aroma in my kitchen!