Craving: Oatmeal Raisin cookies

I think the Dessert Diva is back. But I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. About a week or so ago, I had a craving for oatmeal cookies. I never did get any but I did get around to making some this past Thursday. I've always loved to bake and I believe I've only baked once or twice since I found out I was pregnant. It's been a combination of just not feeling like it and one of my incidents. I hope to get around to doing more baking especially as the weather gets cooler out and I am not baking myself along with my delectable treats.

My first bake- alone baking experience that I can remember was a box cake. I thought it cam out really well and my family ate it so it must have been worth something. That was sometime prior to August of 2005 because I remember cutting my grandma a slice to taste because she is a cake goddess. Since then I've taken an interest not only in baking but sort of cultivating that so I can enjoy dessert anytime I'd like. I think dessert is the finishing touch to everyday and couldn't imagine life without it!

So after I woke up from my afternoon nap I got out my cookbook and got to work. I used a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I bought that for my hubby one day because he is the head chef in our house and requested it after tasting a few recipes that a friend of his made from there. I think I may have used it more than he has as a baking reference. Part of cultivating my talent is learning how to bake from scratch. Don't get me wrong, Sometimes you need a quick and easy bake job and I am not opposed to used boxed mixes for anything- but even then I always doctor up box cake mix recipes to make them more appealing.

So here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350^oF

Whisk together:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon grated or ground nutmeg

Beat in a large bowl until well blended:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¼ cup sugar

1 ½ cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Stir in the flour mixture. Stir in:

1 cup raisins, chopped

3 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats

Shape the dough into generous 1 ½-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Flatten the balls into ½-inch-thick rounds. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until the cookies are lightly browned all over, 12 to 14 minutes. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

Here were my slight variations. I didn't do many as this was first time making them so I had to see how they came out before I could know what to tweak- if anything needs tweaking at all.

- I used salted butter rather than unsalted. I think it may have cut some of the sweetness of so much sugar and definitely altered the nutrition content in some way.

- I over measured on the salt. I didn't realize I put in ¾ teaspoon instead of ½ teaspoon until after I dumped it in the bowl. So clearly these cookies will have way more salt than necessary but I don't think this affected the taste in a negative way- my official taste tester hubby said so. My mom always said to be careful when cooking (and this applies to baking as well) you can always add but you can't take away- so true!

- I held back on some of the raisins. The first batch I put on the cookie sheet didn't have raisins at all. I didn't add them until that batch was in the oven. First, I'm not a fan of raisins and second my craving was oatmeal cookies- I only considered raisins because a) it's the traditional cookie and b) it's my dad's second favorite cookie.

- I used old-fashioned oats rather than rolled oats. I'm not sure if there is a difference I don't think it altered the taste but it was my first try so who knows!

- I baked the cookies for only 10 minutes. I'm not a fan of hard cookies so they HAD to be soft so I reduced the cooking time.

I think they came out pretty well. Especially for my first attempt at cookies from scratch. We'll see how the masses likes them