the chewy American classic: rolled oats and plump raisins in a soft brown-sugar and cinnamon dough, baked until golden at the edges and still soft in the middle
Origin: The United States
From the journey of Oat.
The oatmeal cookie is one of the great American home bakes, and it followed directly from the industrial rolling of oats. Once the Quaker Oats Company and its rivals had put boxes of quick-cooking rolled oats into every American kitchen from the eighteen-seventies onward, recipes for using them beyond the breakfast bowl appeared on the packets themselves, and the oatmeal cookie, with raisins the most enduring version, was among the first and most successful. By the early twentieth century it was a fixture of the cookie jar, the bake sale, and the lunchbox, marketed for a time as a wholesome, energy-giving 'health cookie' on the strength of its oats. What distinguishes it from other cookies is texture: the rolled oats give a chewy, substantial, slightly rugged crumb quite unlike the smooth snap of a plain sugar cookie, and the raisins, plumped in the baking, punctuate it with sweet, soft bursts. Brown sugar keeps the cookie moist and chewy and lends a faint toffee note, and warm spice, cinnamon above all, is all but obligatory. The great and enduring argument is over raisins versus chocolate chips, and over crisp versus chewy: the chewy, underbaked, brown-sugar-heavy oatmeal raisin cookie has the larger following. It is a forgiving, everyday bake, the kind an American child learns to make, and its virtues are homely ones: the chew of the oats, the sweetness of the fruit, and the warmth of the spice.
Rolled oats (old-fashioned oats) are essential for the chewy texture; instant oats make a cakey cookie and steel-cut oats stay hard. For the perennial variation, replace the raisins with chocolate chips, or use half of each. Chopped walnuts or pecans are a common and excellent addition. A little more flour gives a cakier cookie; a little less, a thinner, chewier one. The dough freezes well in balls, ready to bake from frozen with a couple of extra minutes in the oven. Dried cranberries and white chocolate make a popular modern version.
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