The Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe

A few years ago Katie called me and asked if I had a really good Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe, to which I had to reply that although I had several recipes, I wasn't truly thrilled with any of them.  I have several from cookbooks and websites that I have used over the years. But this year on allrecipes.com I have found the oatmeal raisin cookie recipe of my dreams. It is the perfect balance of chewy middle and crispy edges. It is buttery and a little spicy. I can now recommend a recipe to you and here it is:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 or 2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. cloves

1/2 t. salt (I never add salt though)

3 cups oats

1 cup raisins (the good kind that are plump and moist, like Sunmaid)

You know what to do. Blend butter and sugars, add eggs & vanilla, add dry ingredients & raisins. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes (I use parchment lined jelly roll pans).

Yesterday I baked some cookies using a very similar recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, which basically omitted the spices and included chocolate chips (and raisins or nuts) but was the same ratio of butter/sugar/four/oats. They were really good too. I made some with just raisins for the two crazies in our family who don't like chocolate in baking, then loaded in the chocolate chips and raisins for the rest of us.

However, I think the secret to the most fantastic oatmeal cookies with just raisins is the cloves. So don't make them if you don't have cloves, nope, you need to have the cloves for the most dreamy cookies of all time. If you skip the cloves, they'll be good and all, but not the best in the world.

Happy Baking...