Best Salted Oatmeal Cookie Recipe?
March 22, 2017 11:00 AM Subscribe
What is the best salted oatmeal cookie recipe? I love the salted oatmeal cookies from Whisked in DC but they're a bit pricey for me to consume constantly and they haven't published the recipe (I wrote to ask). Please help me make delicious salted oatmeal cookies at home!
The cookies in question are big and flat and chewy and just salty enough and the oatmeal has sort of dissolved into the cookie? Like you know how some oatmeal cookies are very noticably oaty and you can pick out the oats? These are not, and they don't have sort of clumps; they're very homogeneous for oatmeal cookies. They don't have chocolate chips or raisins. Obviously I don't expect to find an exact recipe but these are the ways I would like my oatmeal cookies to be. I can find plenty of recipes but I don't know which ones are actually any good so if you have experience with a recipe for salted oatmeal cookies (or I guess a recipe for regular oatmeal cookies and a recipe for salt) I would be very grateful. Thank you for your assistance!
The cookies in question are big and flat and chewy and just salty enough and the oatmeal has sort of dissolved into the cookie? Like you know how some oatmeal cookies are very noticably oaty and you can pick out the oats? These are not, and they don't have sort of clumps; they're very homogeneous for oatmeal cookies. They don't have chocolate chips or raisins. Obviously I don't expect to find an exact recipe but these are the ways I would like my oatmeal cookies to be. I can find plenty of recipes but I don't know which ones are actually any good so if you have experience with a recipe for salted oatmeal cookies (or I guess a recipe for regular oatmeal cookies and a recipe for salt) I would be very grateful. Thank you for your assistance!
Okay, I've never been to Whisked, and I've never had salted oatmeal cookies at all. But I can tell you my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, which is from this book (1975). It makes flat chewy sweet cookies with a sort of caramely overtone that don't seem in the least bit healthy. 12-year old me looooved this recipe, and my mom would always use a different oatmeal cookie recipe that came out rounded/thick, chunky and oaty, and the kind of thing that parents think they can slip some sort of nutrition into their kids treats. Mom turned up her nose at this recipe, because it "didn't have enough oatmeal in it" but I think she was secretly trying to make granola bars and just call them oatmeal cookies. Anyway, a key point is, only 3/4 c oatmeal, and only use quick-cooking oats (else they won't melt into the cookie dough, you'll have bigger oaty flakes). Another key point is, if you substitute butter for the shortening they will be crispier, and we don't want that (chewy FTW!!).
The cookbook had a variant on the normal cookie order of things: instead of "cream butter+sugar, add eggs+vanilla, add all dry" they have you mixing all the dry together including the sugar, and adding the shortening and egg to that. I don't know how much difference it makes or if that difference is positive or not. All I can tell you is that this is the recipe.
This is a fairly small recipe, makes about 2 dozen unless you scoop them really tiny but who wants that. Recipe has sugar on top, you could easily add some finishing salt there.
1 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
-- Mix together all the above in a medium bowl. Add:
1/2 c shortening
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
--- Beat well, dough will be soft. Finally add
3/4 c quick oats (see, I told you there's not much oatmeal!)
and optionally 1/4 c walnuts, and/or chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins, etc.
Form into small balls, dip tops in granulated sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 10-12 minutes.
posted by aimedwander at 12:02 PM on March 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
The cookbook had a variant on the normal cookie order of things: instead of "cream butter+sugar, add eggs+vanilla, add all dry" they have you mixing all the dry together including the sugar, and adding the shortening and egg to that. I don't know how much difference it makes or if that difference is positive or not. All I can tell you is that this is the recipe.
This is a fairly small recipe, makes about 2 dozen unless you scoop them really tiny but who wants that. Recipe has sugar on top, you could easily add some finishing salt there.
1 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
-- Mix together all the above in a medium bowl. Add:
1/2 c shortening
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
--- Beat well, dough will be soft. Finally add
3/4 c quick oats (see, I told you there's not much oatmeal!)
and optionally 1/4 c walnuts, and/or chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, raisins, etc.
Form into small balls, dip tops in granulated sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 375 for 10-12 minutes.
posted by aimedwander at 12:02 PM on March 22, 2017 [3 favorites]
i know the exact cookies you're talking about and they are SO delicious! i suspect that they grind up quick or rolled oats in a food processor before adding them to the dough.
posted by kerning at 12:08 PM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by kerning at 12:08 PM on March 22, 2017 [2 favorites]
Seconding the Smitten Kitchen recipe. I keep some premade in the freezer, so I can bake them whenever.
Also, I make them without the chocolate-- still delicious. I made them for an office party last year and people went crazy for them.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:19 PM on March 22, 2017
Also, I make them without the chocolate-- still delicious. I made them for an office party last year and people went crazy for them.
posted by a fiendish thingy at 12:19 PM on March 22, 2017
The deal with oatmeal cookies is that if you don't want distinct oat-presence in the cookie, you need to use quick-cooking oats, not regular rolled oats. Regular rolled oats need a lot more moisture and cooking time than you have to give them in a cookie.
If you use quick-cooking and still find the oats too distinct, try hydrating them in the egg for a few minutes before you mix everything else in. Or, grind the oats up first.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:36 PM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
If you use quick-cooking and still find the oats too distinct, try hydrating them in the egg for a few minutes before you mix everything else in. Or, grind the oats up first.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:36 PM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
Try the Smitten Kitchen recipe, but as mentioned above, use quick-cooking oats and grind them first. You might have to play with the sugar amounts to get the texture you want, but I think you'll get pretty close to the desired result.
posted by constellations at 12:57 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by constellations at 12:57 PM on March 22, 2017
The deal with oatmeal cookies is that if you don't want distinct oat-presence in the cookie, you need to use quick-cooking oats, not regular rolled oats.
And/or run your oats through a food processor or coffee grinder first. Reduce them to a texture halfway between "whole oat" and "oat flour." A fair amount of gluten-free recipes just flat out opt for using oat flour (e.g. Martha Stewart example), which works in the direction you're talking about.
Truth be told, I think if you make a basic oatmeal cookie using mostly oat flour (like Martha's example, without the chocolate) and dust the top with a nice finishing salt, you'll have what you're looking for. Grab a container of fleur de sel and see if that does the trick.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:58 PM on March 22, 2017
And/or run your oats through a food processor or coffee grinder first. Reduce them to a texture halfway between "whole oat" and "oat flour." A fair amount of gluten-free recipes just flat out opt for using oat flour (e.g. Martha Stewart example), which works in the direction you're talking about.
Truth be told, I think if you make a basic oatmeal cookie using mostly oat flour (like Martha's example, without the chocolate) and dust the top with a nice finishing salt, you'll have what you're looking for. Grab a container of fleur de sel and see if that does the trick.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:58 PM on March 22, 2017
Another vote for the Smitten Kitchen recipe. I've made a lot of cookies for sharing at work and they are by far the most popular.
posted by pmdboi at 1:45 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by pmdboi at 1:45 PM on March 22, 2017
Mmm I love and am totally craving those cookies now!
They remind me of these Neiman Marcus cookies my coworker makes. It does call for blended oat. I found an approx recipe, tho perhaps swap the chocolate for flakey salt- link
posted by inevitability at 1:58 PM on March 22, 2017
They remind me of these Neiman Marcus cookies my coworker makes. It does call for blended oat. I found an approx recipe, tho perhaps swap the chocolate for flakey salt- link
posted by inevitability at 1:58 PM on March 22, 2017
It is possible they used cooked oatmeal instead of dry. If none of the above hit the mark, then I'd try using cooked.
posted by sulaine at 2:17 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by sulaine at 2:17 PM on March 22, 2017
I recall the Whisked salty oatmeal cookies tasting similar to the Teaism ones. There's been a long hunt for the Teaism recipe for them, this article might yield some ideas for your baking. If I was still in DC I'd get a bag of each and do a tasting!
posted by perrouno at 3:05 PM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by perrouno at 3:05 PM on March 22, 2017 [1 favorite]
You're going to come back and tell us how well this all worked, and give us a recipe, right??
posted by aimedwander at 8:49 AM on March 24, 2017
posted by aimedwander at 8:49 AM on March 24, 2017
I've never had the Whisked cookies before, but the Washington Post article perrouno posted resulted in cookies that tasted almost *exactly* like the ones you get at Teaism.
posted by echo0720 at 6:05 PM on March 24, 2017
posted by echo0720 at 6:05 PM on March 24, 2017
Response by poster: I made the Smitten Kitchen ones and I don't think they're exactly the same but they are still very very good so I'm probably going to stick with that recipe. Thank you all!
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:59 AM on April 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:59 AM on April 2, 2017 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
(I cut the sugar down by 1/2 cup, but I do that with many recipes.)
posted by wyzewoman at 11:56 AM on March 22, 2017 [6 favorites]