Best Basic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

If you are like me, you've tried lots and lots of oatmeal cookie recipes, and haven't been really satisfied with any of them, or they didn't seem like they could hold up to a bit of tweaking, well, this is a fast, easy recipe that tastes great in its most basic form, but its also great simply because of all of the neat things you can do with it…

Add nuts, add chocolate (or any flavor) chips, add chopped dried fruit like dates, apricots, figs, it’s so versatile.  And it makes smaller cookies, about 2 ½ inches diameter, so you can have a handful and it’s not going to hurt you!  Imagine more cookies packed with more of the good stuff, ahhh.

This recipe is for a half batch, frankly, because by the time we are through with this many, we are ready to move on to something else, which means I get to create something else :)

Ingredients:

1 stick margarine

1/2 C brown sugar

1/4 C white sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1 C flour

1/4 + 1/8 t baking soda

1/4 t salt

1/2 t cinnamon (optional)

1 1/4 C oats (old fashioned kind)

1 C raisins

To Make:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Either grease cookie pans, or use silicon baking sheets
• Cream margarine and sugars in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer
• Add egg and vanilla, mix until well distributed
• Add baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mix until well distributed
• Add flour, mix
• Add oats and raisins and mix until even throughout
• Drop by the teaspoon onto cookie sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart
• Bake for 12-14 minutes, until they just begin to brown
• Cool for a few minutes on the sheet, then remove to a plate/cooling rack

Nice, eh?  Good lunchtime dessert.  And they are so fast and easy to put together, you’ll be done in time for the oven to finish preheating.  This recipe makes about 4 cookie sheets worth.  While they are fast to make, they are fast to disappear around here as well.

*Versatile recipe, I've made these with cranberries (add a dash of allspice!) or chocolate chips (and white chocolate chips, add a pinch of nutmeg!) before, and have added nuts too, that's what I like about finding good basic recipes--they are so easy to tweak and make into something completely different.