Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies: crisp edges, soft centres
Twenty-four cookies from one bowl in under an hour: butter creamed with sugar and honey, an egg, rolled oats, a little flour, cinnamon and raisins. The honey and a short bake keep the centres soft and chewy while the edges crisp up. Perfect for the lunchbox, and they keep for a week.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Baking 25 min
- Cooling 15 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneCream the butter with the sugar and honey
Heat the oven to 180 °C and line two trays with paper. Beat the soft butter with the sugar, honey and vanilla sugar for 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat another half minute.
Ingredients: 150 g butter · 120 g sugar · 2 tbsp honey · 1 pcs egg · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 200 g rolled oats (old-fashioned) · 120 g plain flour · ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda · 1 tsp cinnamon · 1 pinch salt · 100 g raisins
TipHoney holds moisture in the dough: it is largely what gives the soft, chewy centre. With white sugar alone the cookies come out crisper and drier.
Pale, fluffy, then the eggFold in the oats and raisins
Add the oats, flour, soda, cinnamon and salt and fold with a spatula just until combined. Raisins last. The dough is thick and sticky and holds its shape on the spoon.
TipOld-fashioned rolled oats stay distinct and crisp. Instant oats absorb moisture fast and soften, so the cookies come out denser, without a clear oat texture.
Rolled oats, flour, cinnamon, raisinsShape the balls
Scoop walnut-sized portions (about 30 g), roll into balls between your palms and place on the tray 5 cm apart: they spread to twice their diameter. Flatten each slightly with your fingertips.
30 g balls, 5 cm apart, slightly flattenedBake briefly
Bake 11–12 minutes at 180 °C, one tray at a time, on the middle shelf; put the second in as soon as the first comes out (about 25 minutes in all). The edges should be golden and the centres still pale and soft; the cookies finish cooking on the hot tray after they come out.
TipTwelve minutes gives a soft centre, fifteen gives cookies crisp all through. Both are good; choose deliberately.
Golden edges, pale centre: take them outCool on the tray
Leave on the tray 5 minutes, until firm enough to move, then cool on a rack for about 10 minutes more. In an airtight tin they keep a week; the dough freezes as shaped balls and bakes straight from frozen, 2 minutes longer.
Five minutes on the tray, then the rack
Before you start
With chocolate
100 g chopped dark chocolate instead of the raisins, and skip the cinnamon. The American classic in a Polish kitchen.
With cranberries and walnuts
50 g dried cranberries and 50 g chopped walnuts instead of the raisins. Less sweet, more autumnal.
The cookies spread too much
The butter was too soft or melted. Next time chill the shaped balls in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking.
