Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Ever.

So this past week I made about 6 dozen cookies (and froze another 6 dz unbaked dough blobs) to mail to some friends. My favorite recipe from the 6 that I made were these oatmeal raisin cookies. I'd made them before, and the note on my scrawled out recipe from last time says "very good." I'd actually forgotten how good they were, and I'm glad I only baked exactly what I was mailing (plus a tester... can't send out cookies unless you make sure they're not terrible, right???) They're chewy and soft and delicious, and I'm really running out of things to say about them because I'm thinking about the dozen that I have in the freezer...

So here's the recipe!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
makes approx. 3 dz

2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/3 c brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3 T pure maple syrup (I like grade B - it's darker and more flavorful)
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 c rolled oats
1 c raisins (I used 1 1/2 c and they were a little too raisin-y)

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the salt, vanilla, and maple syrup. Once combined, add eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl down as needed. Add in the flour and baking soda, mixing until just combined. Then add the oats and raisins, and barely mix so you dont squish the raisins or beat up the oats too much.

I always chill my cookie dough for about an hour before I bake it. It portions out better, and I find that they spread less. I was using a #50 disher, but then the stupid scraper part broke, so I went to a good old fashioned spoon. Drop the cookies a couple inches apart on a parchment lined sheet tray. Bake at 350 for 8 min, rotate the sheet pan, and bake for another 2-3 minutes until they're evenly browned and still soft looking in the center. Let cool on the pans for a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool. (Or just eat them... you don't mind a burned tongue, do you?)


NOTE: I used both a thin nonstick pan and a restaurant-grade half sheet pan. The thin nonstick pan worked better for this, I thought. The ones I made on the thick half-sheet spread too much.

Also, you could divide the dough in half before adding the raisins. Add raisins to one half, and peanut butter chips to the other half, for those silly people who don't like raisins. (You know who you are.)