Good Cookies-A Winter SOS from Nashville
We received an SOS from our kid Jorge who goes to school in Nashville. For a California kid, 19 degrees (Fahrenheit!) and snow deserves a care package from home when requested. If I could box some warm California sunshine I would send that too but he will have to settle for cookies and treats.
Yes, I Have a Food Saver 🤦🏻♀️
Care packages are quite a production for us (self-imposed of course). We bake cookies, scour our local Asian market for a particular brand of ramen, and make homemade granola and candied nuts. It doesn’t end there. We freeze the cookies and vacuum pack them. No stale smooshed cookies for my kids, nope. I bet you think this woman is nuts…..you might be right.
What? Make Cookies?
Still reeling from the holiday cookie baking extravaganza, I enlisted the hubs to bake cookies. Two things Wes bakes and he has perfected them both, carrot cake and his version of oatmeal raisin cookies. I am off the hook for making birthday cakes as Wes’s Carrot Cake is the uncontested family favorite. Birthday cake and Carrot Cake are synonymous in our house.
Good Cookies, that’s his other specialty. That’s their name, Good Cookies. But they live up to the name. They are really good. Think of them as oatmeal raisin cookies that have attained Nirvana. Chewy and soft with a little bit of crunch from the addition of Life cereal. Over the years he has tinkered with his recipe and has added tart dried cranberries and fresh rosemary which elevates these cookies from good to Awesome. Like his carrot cake, these cookies have become a tradition, the unequivocal munchie-favorite during midterms and finals.
This recipe can be easily halved or doubled depending on your need. You can omit the rosemary if that doesn’t appeal to you but try it at least once. You’ll have your friends wondering what is in that delicious cookie.
Good Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Fugly Goldenrod Large Tupperware bowl from the 60's optional but....
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/2 pound salted butter (2 sticks) softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs slightly beatened
Dry Ingredients:combine in small bowl and set aside
- 2 cups all-purpose flour Gold Medal or Pillsbury AP preferred, but use what you have
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
Adds
- 1/4 tsp fresh finely chopped rosemary optional, but pretty darn good
- 1/2 cup cereal, crushed (Wes uses Life cereal or sometimes cornflake crumbs)
- 1-1/2 cups Quick Quaker Oats old fashioned would work, DO NOT USE instant
- 1.5 cups raisins Wes uses a combination of raisins/cranberries at a ratio of 75%/ 25%
See notes to use a stand mixer
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine wet ingredients plus oatmeal. LITERALLY, Wes uses his hand to knead the ingredients together.
- In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients (except the raisins).
- Add dry mixture to wet and mix thoroughly but do not overwork your dough if using an electric mixer
- Add raisins and cranberries
- Place heaping tablespoons on an un-greased baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 12-13 minutes until edges are golden brown.
- Makes around 5 dozen.