This recipe came from the wonderful pastrystudio blog that has been a real inspiration for me. The largely anonymous blogger was a professional baker who put up dozens of excellent recipes over the course of three or four years . . . and then suddenly stopped posting about a year ago. I made tons of those recipes, and some of them have become my favorite things to bake and real staples here at the Pastry Ranch.
Come back, PastryStudio, all is forgiven! I hope she is well and has retired to her own little pastry ranch somewhere, making delicious things for her loved ones.
The point of these cookies was supposed to be that they’re flat and crispy. But the first time I made them they were little pillows of oatmeal that were too plump and dry, with the suspicious texture of something that was supposed to be healthy for breakfast.
The second time around, I became ruthless and smushed them hard with the palm of my hand, really spreading them out onto the Silpat. Now I show no mercy to my oatmeal cookies, and they’re better for it. Here’s how.
CRISPY OATMEAL-RAISIN-CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIES
(inspired by a recipe from pastrystudio)
STEP 1
Melt 5T of unsalted butter and set it aside to cool
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together:
1 1/3 C flour
1/2 t baking soda
STEP 2
In a larger mixing bowl, combine:
1/2 C oatmeal
1/2 C sugar or 1/4 C Steviva Blend
1/4 C brown sugar, packed
2 T plus 1 t light corn syrup
2 T milk
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
the melted butter
STEP 3
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture. Combine thoroughly with a spoon or spatula. Then add:
7 oz chocolate chunks (I used bittersweet chocolate chips)
1/4 C raisins (optional, but oatmeal and raisins just go together; don’t ask me why)
Cover the whole thing in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes but preferably overnight.
STEP 4
The mixture is going to be hard. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, set the racks to thirds, and then use a knife to cut chunks of the dough out. To make big, impressive cookies, I weighed out 80 grams at a time (about 1/3 C), rolled them into balls with my hands and set them, 3 to a sheet, onto two cookie sheets lined with Silpats. Aluminum foil can also work but might tear at the next step, and Silpats are better. Let the balls sit for a couple of minutes at room temperature to warm up.
Now sneak up on them and with the palm of your hand, smush them hard into the Silpat, flattening them all the way down, as thin as they’ll get, and spreading them out (don’t let them touch each other or they’ll fuse together in the oven). Let the smushed dough patties chill their bad selves out for 10 minutes. As my mother used to say, you just sit there and think about what you did.
Bake for 22 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom and back to front halfway through. The cookies should be dark and crispy at the edges; be careful that they don’t burn.
Remove from the oven and slide the Silpats or aluminum foil, with the hot cookies still stuck to them, off the cookie sheet and onto cooling racks (I used tongs to accomplish this). Let cool completely before peeling the cookies off (again, much easier done with Silpats).
Now who’s the ranch’s new Cookie Boss? Huh?
The Pastry Ranch 