The Best Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
Follow these easy steps and you’ll have a chewy, moist, wholesome snack that is full of character. By adding your choice of nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips, this soft cookie will eclipse all others.
Makes about 2 dozen
Ingredients
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional but really adds depth)
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 cup or 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cups of old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup of raisins (try soaking them in a little rum) or craisins
- Optional additions of chocolate chips, walnuts, coarse sea salt sprinkled on top before baking or other.
Directions
- Mix the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars together.
- Add the egg and vanilla.
- Using a spatula or a fork, fold in the dry ingredients until you obtain a thick dough. Do not over mix.
- I like to add craisins, semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, chopped toasted walnuts, but you can use other ingredients that you may have on hand.
- Chill the dough in fridge for 30 minutes and place by spoonful on ungreased baking tray (cookies will not stick to tray if removed immediately with spatula once baked).
- Bake for approximately 12 minutes in a preheated 350 F oven (190 Celsius). The soft and chewy texture is obtained if you under bake them a little.
I have lived here for 47 years and have only seen one, the Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yagouaroundi), which I have seen on multiple occasions. One of those sightings was particularly memorable. A neighbor who lived close to the lodge bought some young chicks to fatten for meat for the dinner table. They grew quickly and soon the roosters among them began to crow. I know of no sound more irritating than the crowing of an adolescent rooster. It seemed like there was a competition among them, and each day they started a little earlier and crowed a little louder. Soon the racket began shortly after midnight. Of course our guests complained about it, but the neighbor, Ricardo, was uncooperative. One day I saw two jaguarundis cross the driveway heading toward his chicken coop. Word soon got out that they had killed a couple of chickens. Knowing that Ricardo would try to kill the cats, I called the wildlife department and asked if a game warden could come and have a talk with him. One happened to be in the area and stopped by that same afternoon. He told Ricardo that if anything happened to the pair of beautiful black cats they would know it was him, and that the fine would be enormous. Ricardo killed all the young roosters that same day, and put them in the freezer. I don’t think that these beautiful black cats are seen more frequently than other felines because they are more numerous, rather it is because they are diurnal, less wary of humans, and spend most of their time on the ground. At 5 kg the jaguarundi is the third largest of the five Hacienda Barú species.
