Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

I just got back from New York. I had a great trip: I biked the 5 Boro Bike Tour, I had an amazing dinner at Lupo, and I caught up with some of my best friends. I stayed most of the time with my friend Blake and his girlfriend Katrina who were attempting to make great oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They were doing fairly well, but I really just wanted to enlighten them to my favorite cookie recipe of all time. It's a recipe I slightly adapted from the pages of Cook's Illustrated. Here's how they go:

1.25 cups (6oz) All Purpose Flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp table salt


whisk these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside. it's important to whisk them, this is in lieu of sifting. Who does that for cookies?

1.5 cups (3.5oz) of rolled oats
1 cup (4oz) pecans chopped and preferably toasted in the oven until nutty smelling
1 cup (5oz) dried cherries or cranberries, chopped. look for some with less sugar.
4 oz chopped chocolate or chocolate chips. I usually use the ghirardelli bittersweet bars from the grocery store.


stir these four ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

in a small bowl, crack the egg and add the vanilla extract. whisk together slightly with a fork.

12 Tbls (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cold but soft. (20-30 sec. in the microwave will soften it)
1.5 cups packed (10.5oz) dark brown sugar

with a sturdy spoon, cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl. mix until it is a uniform creamy texture, then mix it a while longer. stir in the egg mixture, one half at a time, adding the second half after the first is completely integrated.

once mixed, stir in the flour mixture in four batches, waiting until the batter is completely mixed before adding more flour. After the flour is all added, stir in the oat mixture. It won't appear to be able to all fit, but if you keep folding the batter, eventually you'll get a uniform mixture.

Throw the batter in the fridge and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

These cookies should be made rather large, approximately 3 tablespoons, each. flatten each cookie into a puck-like shape and place on a cookie sheet. These can be baked on two cookie sheets at once. Bake for 6 minutes, then rotate the cookie sheets, moving the top sheet to the bottom, and vice versa. Then bake about 6 minutes more. Make sure not to overbake!

If you make these, let me know the results. I think I should make them again, ASAP, just to get some better pictures of them.