Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

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Oatmeal cookies are a proverbial favorite with both kids and adults. This recipe is loaded with oats, which produces a crisp and chewy cookie that you can fill with chocolate chips (white or dark chocolate), dried fruits, and/or chopped nuts. I found this recipe in Jane Rodmell's 'Best Summer Weekends Cookbook' and it's a real winner. She even tells us that we can make the batter ahead of time and leave it in the refrigerator so we can make freshly baked cookies on demand. 

There is always the question of what type of rolled oats to use in baking; old-fashioned or quick-cooking. Both start with oats that are cleaned, toasted, and hulled to become what we call oat groats. The difference between the two is in the thickness of the oats after the oat groats have been steamed and flattened. Old-fashioned rolled oats are thicker because to make quick-cooking rolled oats the oat groats are first cut into pieces before being steamed and flattened. Although they are usually interchangeable in recipes I do recommend using old-fashioned rolled oats in this recipe as I prefer their thicker texture and better flavor. 

As a side note; rolled oats were first produced in 1877 by The Quaker Mill Company and are known for their distinctive cardboard canister with its red, white and blue label. By 1884 the Quaker Mill Company began selling their product, calling it "Quaker Oats". Incidentally, Quaker Oats is said to have been not only the first packaged food in America but also the first product to be mass marketed in the United States. And speaking about Oatmeal Cookies. The first oatmeal cookie recipes contained just one half cup of oatmeal. The recipes that we see today, that are loaded with oats, are adaptations of a recipe first developed by The Quaker Oats Company during the Second World War. That recipe also used vegetable shortening instead of butter, which was in short supply. So if you see recipes today calling for shortening you now know where that originated

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