No child can probably remember a childhood without fresh baked cookies from their moms. Oatmeal cookies are one of the easiest cookies you can make if you’re just getting started in the baking world. Not only do they taste great, the ingredients are relatively cheap and almost everything you need can be picked up online for a fraction of the price of what you’d pay in a grocery store. Today I’m going to be going through a very easy to follow recipe for oatmeal cookies as well as giving you some pointers on how you can save money on all of the ingredients that you need so that you’re not breaking the bank every time you want to remember what mom’s baking touch was like.
The Recipe
First of all, we’re going to go through all of the ingredients you need. You probably have most of this at home, but anything you don’t own can easily be found on Amazon. One thing I like to avoid buying from a local grocer if I can is baking oats. The reason is because many stores consider them to be a “specialty” item and typically mark up the price to compensate for their low prices on everything else. You can bypass these high prices by buying your oats online in bulk and keeping them in an airtight container in the pantry until next time you’re ready to bake.
Ingredients
- 1 cup of butter
- 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- Vanilla extract
- 2 cups of flour
- 1.5 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
- 3 cups of baking oats
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
Steps
Once you’ve gotten all of your ingredients together, it’s time to start the baking process.
1. The first thing you’ll want to do is ensure that the butter is at room temperature so that it’s easily creamed. Combine both cups of sugar and the butter in a medium sized bowl and mix them until they’re a creamy paste. Add in one egg at a time and whisk them into the creamy mixture. Once both eggs have been beaten into the mixture, add a few drops of vanilla extract to the mixture and stir once more.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and the cinnamon until it’s a homogeneous powdered mixture. With the mixture in hand, add it to the creamy mixture you made in step one and combine the two thoroughly. Be sure to add the powdered mixture to the creamy mixture, as moving the creamy substance to a new bowl will leave some of the mixture behind. Once both bowls of ingredients have been mixed together, it’s time to add in the 3 cups of oats.
3. With the mixture completely made, cover the bowl with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. Leave the mixture in the fridge for about an hour so that it’s completely chilled.
4. As the cooling time is winding down, it’s time to start getting the oven ready. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
5. Grease two cookie sheets with either butter or non-stick spray that can be purchased from your local grocer or online and prepare to put the cookies onto the tray.
6. Remove the batter from the fridge and roll the cookie dough into miniature balls that are approximately an inch in diameter. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the cookie trays so that they don’t spill over into each other during the baking process.
7. With your cookies prepped on the trays and the oven preheated, it’s time to put them into the oven for baking. You’ll want to bake the cookies for about 8 minutes so that they’ve flattened out and are beginning to brown on the bottom.
8. Once the cookies are removed from the oven, place the cookie tray on a cooling rack and leave it for at least 10 minutes before your children’s fingers go near them!
All of the batter you make can produce about 40 cookies when made an inch in size. If you’d like bigger cookies, you may only be able to get two cookie sheet’s worth of cookies, but they’ll be more filling!
More Cookie Ideas
My girlfriend is a big cookie aficionado and has many different baking books lying around the apartment. Her favorite cookie book by far is one by the name of “The All-American Cookie Book.” The descriptions on how to properly mix and bake the cookies are phenomenal and for someone like me who doesn’t bake all that often, it’s really a foolproof guide to making perfect cookies every time.
It’s worthwhile noting that in the beginning of the book there is a section devoted to how to measure all of your ingredients out for the perfect cookies every time. It may seem trivial to read this section if you’ve baked anything before, but the detail is definitely necessary for even expert bakers.