Oatmeal Raisin Cookies have a basic heartiness that appeals to me. One of the reasons I like the Best Recipes Cookbook is that each recipe is tested, retested, and tweaked numerous times. In the test kitchen the experts start with several good recipes and find out what works best. If I were going to have just a few cookbooks in my kitchen, this would be one of them. What I like most about Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies is that there is a tiny hint of nutmeg, so small that you can't really pick out what it is. Usually I put cinnamon in Oatmeal Raisin Cookies but after making these I have to agree that the plainer cookie really brings out the flavor of the oats and raisins. My husband is a Raisin Man. Seriously, he goes through a box of raisins about every 3 days. These cookies also live up to the "chewy" part of the name. Believe me, this recipe is going in the family recipe box. They look just as good as they taste, too! My "grader" thought it would only be fair to try them with ice cream. Just in case the first 3 might have been flukes, he tried a few more. 
Oh, and better check them out with vanilla ice cream, too!
My paternal grandmother, gave me a wooden recipe box that belonged to her mother, my great-grandmother, Jane "Jennie" Anderson Finger. Sadly, there was only one recipe left in the box. I do not know for certain that it is Jennie Finger's handwriting, but I like to think it is. She had a reputation for being a fabulous cook, who could whip up a meal for company at a moment's notice. Several years ago I made this recipe with great 
anticipation and truthfully, the cookies were...awful. (Traitor!) Perhaps there was something about the ingredients and the fact that cooks back then assumed everyone knew how to bake (which I do, but maybe not quite like they did on a wood stove.) Anyway, if I pass an oatmeal cookie recipe along, it will be the one from The New Best Recipes Cookbook. I could handwrite it on a recipe card, couldn't it? 
Anyway, I do like the way she spells "Cooky" and "Rasins".
2 comments:
It's been my experience that almost all recipes that have been handed down have some 'issues' because the cooks didn't use exact recipes! My Gram's version of breadmaking was hilarious when she tried explaining the porportions she used, and Mom finally gave up attempting my other grandmother's burnt sugar cake after 5 years of failed attempts!
Your family is more persistent. I only tried the Oatmeal Cooky recipe once.
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