Opa's Spicy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

Rev 1.20, last revised:  20-Dec-07

It took some experimenting, until I came up with these chewy, spicy, oatmeal-raisin cookies.  These have become our favorite cookies (who's second best?).  Although I usually replace the raisins with dried-cranberries, I sometime tuck in a couple of teaspoons of poppy seeds, finely chopped or grated lemon or orange rind, or most anything else that catches my fancy.

It’s great because they make your kitchen smell wonderful while they’re baking.  Reminds me of Christmas.  This recipe makes about 2 dozen good-sized cookies, more if you make 'em smaller...  Prep Time: 15 Minutes.  Bake Time: 12 Minutes.  Ready in: 50 Minutes.

Beat these items together:

Cream these items into the mixture:

Add these items into the mixture:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla extract, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves (and/or mace, allspice, nutmeg), and salt until smooth.

Cream in the softened butter, brown & white sugar.  Stir in the flour.  Stir in the oats and raisins (or other dried fruit).

Roll into golf ball sized balls, or drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets several inches apart, because they'll spread some.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden.  Do not over-bake!  Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.  Make sure you get some while they're still warm, cuz they don't last long!

NB:  One of my favorite variations is to substitute the cup of dried berries for 1/2-cup each of finely chopped or grated orange peel, and chocolate-chips or morsels.  We like the orange peel flavor.  If it's too much for you, simply use less.  It's pretty hard to make a mistake with this recipe...  Once we even left out the butter.  And they still tasted great!