I am usually not a fan of raisins. Maybe I got too many of those little red boxes in my Trick-or-Treat bag from well-meaning (read: old and cranky) neighbors as a child. However, I make an exception for these cookies. These are the only way to eat raisins in my book!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1 cup White Sugar
- 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Large Eggs
- 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp. Baking Soda
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1-1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp. Allspice
- 3 cups Quick Cooking Oats
- 1 cup Golden Raisins
- 3/4 cup Chopped Walnuts
Directions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, blend together butter or margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth and creamy.
- Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice, and mix until well combined.
- Add oats, raisins, and walnuts, and mix until well distributed through the dough.
- Cover dough and chill for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Cover baking sheets with aluminum foil.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and shape into balls, a little over 1-inch thick.
- Arrange balls on baking sheet, and gently smoosh* them down with the palm of your hand until about 1/2-inch thick.
- Bake in preheated oven for 9-10 minutes, until they just begin to brown.
- Remove from oven and immediately transfer to a rack to cool.
- Pour the milk!
*Not in the Urban Dictionary sense. Pervert.
Feel free to load these up with more or different nuts or dried fruit, or even chocolate chips if you’re not an oatmeal cookie purist. One of my favorite twists on this recipe is to substitute macadamia nuts and chopped pineapple for the walnuts and raisins, with a dash of orange extract. This is a robust cookie dough that can hold a lot of chunky goodness, so be adventurous!