Thursday, September 29, 2011

Oatmeal raisin cookies

Mmm, a delicious golden-brown cookie, studded with scrumptuous bits and pieces. Just what the sweet tooth ordered. I reach for the treat, sink my teeth into its chewy goodness, and FREAK MY SHIT OUT.

Goddamn raisins.

As far as I’m concerned, a raisin is a poor man’s chocolate chip when it comes to an oatmeal cookie (and maybe everything else). I grew up eating my grandma’s cowboy cookie recipe, which my mother invariably burnt every time. However, dunked in ice-cold 2-percent, crispy chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies became sublimely soggy and the Hershey’s bittersweet chips made my little heart beat a little faster.

I have since perfected the recipe and it’s pretty much the only cookie I make. When I’m at a cafĂ© or friend’s house, I am drawn to the plate of oatmeal cookies. Obviously, those little brown specs are chocolate chips. Why would you use anything else? More often than I’d like to admit, I feel betrayed by the baker, tricked by the bait-and-switch.

Chocolate always bests raisins in the Rochambeau of baked goods.

(photo: levainbakery.com)

12 comments:

phoebe marie said...

hahahahaha.
i always love your posts, but i could not agree more with THIS one.
raisins are the little bastards of the baking world.

Jen said...

I'm with you.

We were at a family gathering once and my aunt had brought what we thought were delicious looking chocolate chip cookie bars. After biting into one, we found out they were raisin bars. That was probably 15 years ago and we still talk about how good those cookies looked. But she had to ruin them with raisins.

Anonymous said...

SO true. Raisins are fine in Raisin Bran but they should not be snuck into anything else that people might actually eat.

Cathi said...

Raisins remind me of bug without legs. Hate 'em!!!!

SousLeCharme said...

Please share your recipe. I've never had oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips!

Jennifer Worick said...

There's a link to the Cowboy Cookie recipe in the post.

Skitzo Leezra Studio said...

I hate coconut like you hate raisins.
Coconut = the devil's toenails.
Pa-tooey!

Anonymous said...

I love raisins! To me oatmeal cookies need raisins--are not real oatmeal cookies without raisins. I do love chocolate, but not in oatmeal cookies. So there!

KW said...

Oh my that was hilarious mainly because my friend and I had this argument of raisins or no raisins. I love raisins...I don't care what you think! I read the recipe for pumpkin bread and it said was optional to put raisins and walnuts in it. I wanted to try it. She didn't. I made fun of her for being a freak. She cried. So, when I read this, I immediately sent it to her.

And yes, I hate white chocolate. UGH!

Dawn said...

I just BOL'd. busted out laughing about this post. You are a riot. Really enjoying your stories. Dawn Suitcase Vignettes xo

Khaled said...

I'm not a big lover of raising, but for cookies I much prefer oatmeal raisin cookies to chocolate chip as chocolate chip cookies always seems to taste too sugary.

Anonymous said...

Ninja raisins. I fucking hate ninja raisins. You can be sitting there enjoying a nice piece of danish and then *WHAM*...wrong texture. It's like biting into a freakin' bug.

Someone needs to do a better job of corraling these ninja raisins.