Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Crunchy throughout, with a slight give at their center, these cookies have heft and presence.
difficulty:
yield:

16 (4-inch) cookies

time:

10 minutes to make, about 30 minutes to bake

The cookies will still be soft when you pull them out of the oven; they will become firmer as they cool.

introduction

The bias cut and toasted burnish of Anson Mills oats give cookies made in their name a lightness of being, fine crispness, and full flavor that leave similar confections speechless. No need to rinse hulls from the oats when preparing cookies—they won’t stand out in the crowd.

equipment mise en place

For this recipe, you will need a digital kitchen scale, two heavy baking sheets, parchment paper, a medium mixing bowl, a whisk, a stand mixer with the flat-beater attachment, a rubber spatula, a spring-loaded ice cream scoop just shy of 2 inches in diameter, and a wire cooling rack.

    • 7.5
      ounces (1½ cups) unbleached all-purpose flour or an equal amount by weight of Anson Mills Colonial Style Fine Cloth-Bolted Pastry Flour
    • 7.9
    • ½
      teaspoon baking powder
    • Scant ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
    • ¼
      teaspoon ground cinnamon or nutmeg
    • 2.4
      ounces (½ cup) raisins
    • 5
      ounces (10 tablespoons) unsalted European-style butter, room temperature
    • 4
      ounces (½ cup packed) dark brown sugar
    • 3
      ounces (⅓ cup plus 4 teaspoons) granulated sugar
    • 1
      large egg
    • teaspoons vanilla extract
  1.  

    Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Turn the flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon or nutmeg into a medium mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add the raisins and stir to combine, breaking up any clumps with your fingers.

  2.  

    Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat-beater attachment until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Add both sugars and beat on medium speed until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is light and aerated, pausing once to scrape down the bowl, about 3 minutes. With the mixer running on low speed, add the egg and vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Detach the bowl from the mixer and scrape it down. Using the rubber spatula, stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until an evenly moistened dough forms.

  3.  

    Using a spring-loaded ice cream scoop just shy of 2 inches in diameter, form sixteen 2-inch balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with moistened palms. Bake 1 sheet at a time until golden brown on the bottoms and tops, 13 to 15 minutes, rotating the pan from front to back halfway through. Slide the parchment sheet onto a cooling rack and let the cookies cool for 15 minutes.