Cookie Quest - Raisinless Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I have a killer Oatmeal Raisin cookie recipe from my mom. I don't know where she got it, but I do know that it's a recipe for deliciousness. I've altered them endlessly over the years - subbing out the raisins in favor of various dried fruits, nuts, and chocolate - always with success. I'm now married to a man who does not like raisins (or any other dried fruit), so when I decided to make these cookies the other day I knew I'd have to switch it up. Also, I'm out of raisins and I was determined to make cookies with only ingredients I already had on hand.

Bet you wish you were here now.

Which leads me to oatmeal. I've always used old-fashioned oats in this recipe, laboring under the vague notion that the quick cooking kind wouldn't guarantee me the same results. Unfortunately, as I was measuring out my oats, I realized I only had half of the amount of old-fashioned oats that I needed. Since I'd already nixed going to the store, I used quick-cooking (not instant) oats for the other cup and a half I needed. Would it matter? And what's the difference anyway?

Sugar and butter - the building blocks to any good cookie.

Well, wouldn't you know Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking has the answer! Oats, whether steel-cut, old-fashioned, quick-cooking, or instant are first roasted at a low temperature. Roasting gives the oats their flavor, and makes them less soluble by denaturing the protein found in the grain (meaning they keep their shape better when you cook them). Once the grains are roasted, they are processed into the different varieties - steel-cut oats are chopped into smaller pieces and rolled oats are first steamed (makes them soft) and then, as their name implies, rolled thin. Rolling the oats means that they absorb water much quicker than the steel-cut kind, which makes sense if you've ever made oatmeal from steel-cut oats. Old-fashioned, quick-cooking, and instant oats are all rolled oats, but they're rolled to different thicknesses, which accounts for their different cooking times. Old-fashioned oats are about 0.8mm thick, quick-cooking are half of that, and instant are even thinner (again, all thanks to On Food and Cooking).

Ok, so that's the technical difference between old-fashioned oats and quick-cooking oats, but how would mixing the two work in my cookie recipe? And again, it's not like I used only quick-cooking oats - I used a cup and a half of each. The quick-cooking kind require less liquid to rehydrate them and make them edible - without changing anything else about my recipe, how would that simple change effect my cookies?

Going in the oven!

The answer to that, I think, is "not much, really." My cookies tend to come out very thin anyway (this has been a problem when it comes to chocolate chip cookies), and I've got a few guesses for why that might be. My butter might be too warm or too well-beaten (causing spreading in the oven), or I might have a pretty light hand when it comes to scooping up flour (cookies wouldn't have enough gluten structure to keep their rise). Adding slightly more flour fixes the problem but tends to make them a bit tougher, and I am definitely a chewy cookie kind of cookie monster. So that's out. Anyway, what I'm saying is this: these cookies were thin, but my cookies are thin anyway, so it's hard to tell if they're thinner due to the quick-cooking oats. There are enough old-fashioned oats in there to give them a good chewy texture, and the addition of a small amount of cinnamon really makes them addictive. I'm not sure about using all quick oats, though. You might lose some of the texture that way.

I ended up adding in chocolate chips instead of raisins - but between you and me, I think I might prefer the raisins. I know, you're wondering if I'm feeling okay. I've never not wanted chocolate in something before, but bear with me here. The cookies are almost too sweet with the chocolate, and raisins add a pleasant contrast to the sweetness of the cookie.

YUM!!

And finally, as a parting thought, here's another tidbit from Harold McGee. In his discussion about how oats are not one of the most popular grain (a surprise to me, really, since they're pretty popular in my house), provides this definition of oats, originally published in Samuel Johnson's 1755  Dictionary: "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people" (On Food and Cooking, p.471). Ouch, Scotland!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies 
From Mom!

1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups oats
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. In large bowl, combine butter / margarine, both sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Beat well until light and fluffy. Gradually add in flour mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop tablespoon-fuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 7-8 minutes (or, if you want them crispy, 9-10 minutes). Let cool for about a minute on cookie sheet, and then remove.