I haven’t posted a recipe for a while so, by way of apology, here’s one of my favorites. This isn’t one of those guilty pleasures, it’s a hearty, healthy cookie. Men like them, they’re good for duck hunting. If you run out of ammo you can throw ‘em at the birds. If you miss, they’ll fly back to get a bite and you’ll get another chance.
I know what you’re thinking: This recipe isn’t too different from the one on the Quaker Old Fashioned Oats boxtop. Maybe not, but it’s definitely healthier. When I health-up a recipe (and fatuously add my name to something that’s been made for centuries) I start with four things: Make the flours whole grain; reduce the sugar; use a healthy fat; and add something wholesome.
This recipe has a little more butter, less flour, and 1/3 less sugar than the Quaker Oats recipe. I also skip the cinnamon and raisins but add healthy walnuts and chocolate chips. I don’t actually know how healthy the chocolate chips are but I can vouch for the walnuts. Hope you like ‘em. If you have a favorite recipe, won't you please share it?
Skip’s Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 C butter (2 sticks), softened
- 3/4 C turbinado sugar (or any raw sugar)—this is half the normal amount but the other flavors compensate
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla (I add a little more)
- 1 C whole wheat flour (fresh ground is best)
- ¼ C wheat bran (if you have it, otherwise use wheat germ, or just more flour)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 C rolled oats (Old Fashioned, not instant oats)
- 1 C chopped fresh walnuts, chopped (I add more of this too)
- 2/3 C semisweet chocolate chips (we prefer the mini size and I divide the 12-oz package to get 3 batches)
Directions:
- Turn oven on to 350 F (after checking that your children haven’t left any toys inside).
- In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar; beat in two eggs and vanilla.
- In a smaller bowl blend dry ingredients (flours, salt, and baking soda).
- To the large bowl, stir in the dry ingredients, oats, walnuts, and chips.
- Place rounded tablespoons of dough on a baking pan and flatten with a fork. (If you do this a lot, get one of those scoops with the device that pops the dough out.)
- Bake 12 minutes or so, cool, transfer from pan to wire grill for a few minutes to dry a bit. We bag them into sandwich bags and freeze them for later, taking a bag out each day. If there are kids around give them a cookie with an apple, orange or banana.