FOX’S HEAPING OATMEAL COOKIES

They are easy to make, stay fresh for a week and are quite tasty. Don’t use the cheap ingredients. The quality will show in the cookies. And make sure to let your ingredients warm to room temperature. Take out your butter a few hours before you bake.

TIPS

• Use regular old-fashioned oats. Quaker Oats is best. The fast oats are cut and make poor oats for cookies.
• Warm eggs and butter to room temperature. The butter needs to be soft. Melted liquid butter will leak out of the dough.
• Combine the white granulated sugar and brown sugar and use a whisk to mix it to grind out any lumps before adding it.
• Mix the dry (flour, salt, baking soda, spices) and wet ingredients (this includes the sugar) separately. Have all the ingredients ready.
• Toast your nuts for added flavor.  
• Do not overmix. When you start adding the nuts, chips, fruit and oats, use a spoon by hand to evenly distribute.
• Don’t use cinnamon and nutmeg for the chocolate chip cookies.
• If making chocolate chip, don’t add fruit or spices and use the mini morsels for an even distribution. I used chips that were too big, and my wife will never forgive me.

NOTE ON OVENS

Not all ovens are the same. I have an old electric oven that was invented before my wife was born, and I have to bake things at a lower temperature or for less time. During my first batch of anything, I check it after it bakes for 2/3rds of the suggested time, though you don’t want to do that too often as you’ll let the heat out and lower the baking temperature. So, I suggest baking a test batch of just 2-4 cookies to make sure your oven is at the appropriate temperature. Check the cookies after ten minutes. You want the edges to start looking brown when the cookies are ready.

EQUIPMENT

• Baking Pans
• Handheld or standing mixer
• 3 Tablespoon cookie (ice cream scoop)
• Parchment paper or silicone mat
• Spoons, bowls, etc.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 to ½ CUP (depending on how much nuts you like) of chopped walnuts, roasted.
• 1 and ½ CUP (188g) all-purpose flour spoon and leveled.
• 1 TSP ground cinnamon (for the oatmeal cranberry not the chocolate)
• ½ TSP nutmeg (for the oatmeal cranberry not the chocolate)
• 1 TSP baking soda
• 1 TSP salt
• 1 CUP (2 sticks; 230g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature. Must be soft not melted! Liquid will not work.
• 1 CUP (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• ½ CUP (100g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 TSP pure vanilla extract
• 3 CUP (240g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
• 2 CUP of dried cranberries (cranraisins) or semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini-morsels milk chocolate)

DIRECTIONS:

Always toast your nuts before using them. It adds rich flavor.

TOASTING THE WALNUTS:

1. Preheat an oven to 350° degrees F or set your toaster oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop 1 CUP to 1 ½ CUP of walnuts into crumbs, or as small as you prefer.
3. Use parchment paper or grease a baking sheet then add the chopped nuts.
4. Roast for 8-10 minutes, stirring them every couple of minutes. The room will be redolent with a rich nutty aroma when they are ready. If they are dark brown, they are burned, so keep an eye on them.

MAKING THE COOKIES:

1. Whisk the flour, cinnamon (cranberry only), nutmeg (cranberry only), baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Run this flour mix through a sifter. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth. If the butter is not at room temperature, it will break into chunks. Beat for one minute then scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula. Start mixer again and slowly pour in the mix of brown and white sugar so it evenly distributes into the butter until creamed, about 2 minutes. Then add in egg one at a time, pausing between each egg to let it mix. Add vanilla. Let run for another minute until it is all combined.
3. Turn off mixer, scrape down the sides then add a few spoonfuls of the dry ingredients that have already been mixed. Turn on mixer for about a minute until the flour mixture is properly mixed. Turn it off. Add a few more spoonfuls. Turn on. Repeat until you’ve used all the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Put away the hand mixer or take the bowl off the stand mixer. You use a spoon or rubber spatula to mix in the rest of the ingredients. Add the toasted nuts and fold the batter until they are incorporated. Do the same with the cranberries or chocolate chips then finally the three cups of oats. Mix until its even but don’t overmix.
5. You can chill the dough in the refrigerator for twenty minutes at this point to make it easier to distribute on the sheets. Any longer, and you’ll have to let the dough thaw for fifteen minutes at room temperature before distributing. You can chill the dough up to two days. Cover the dough before chilling so it doesn’t dry out.

6. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. You can use cooking spray or butter the sheets, but the parchment paper works much better.
7. Use a large cookie scoop (about 3 tablespoons) to scoop dome-shaped globs onto the baking sheet at about 4 inches apart. Chill the cookies in the refrigerator for another twenty minutes until cooled before baking. Chilling is the key to a soft cookie. If you use the same baking sheets when making a couple of batches, cool the sheets down under cold water before adding more chilled dough.
8. Put the rack into the middle of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 350° degrees F.
9. If you chilled the cookies, bake about 15-17 minutes or until the edges look brown. The cookie bake time might be different depending how chilled they are, so start looking at your cookies after 12 minutes. You’ll get a sense of how long it takes to bake after your first batch.
10. When cookies are light brown on the sides (or sooner if you like) remove sheet and set to cool for 10-15 minutes. After that, carefully move the cookies to a cooling rack and let them cool for at least an hour.

The cookies will last about a week at room temperature. Try adding some orange or lemon zest to the cranberry cookies to improve the flavor or use a teaspoon of molasses. You can experiment with espresso powder in the chocolate ones or different pieces of dried fruit. It’s a durable cookie that can handle modification.

I make these cookies as part of my annual Christmas cookie bake. This year, I made eleven different types of cookies, all of which I gave away to loved one. Take a look at the video above, and if you think my baking looks good, check out my books and short stories.