January 15th, 2020

At least, the super tasty, perfectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside ones are. And what’s more is that the association with wholesomeness (and oatmeal) may lead one to think that you can scarf down 6-as-big-as-your-hand versions of these buttery bad boys in one sitting. I like to make mine with chopped, toasted walnuts, vanilla-soaked dates, and twice as much cinnamon as any recipe will tell you to put. That way, even once they cookies have cooled and they’ve been transported, they still encapsulate that warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven flavor.

The initial recipe I used entailed 1 whole cup of butter (that’s two sticks), plus 1 cup of white sugar and 2/3rds cups of packed brown sugar. That’s nearly double the amount of sugar and butter that your average chocolate chip cookie calls for! I made that recipe (with double the cinnamon, of course), and the cookies were out of this fricking world, and were gone after a day. Mind you, I didn’t eat them all myself. It was the night of the Raven’s game, and so I brought them over to some friends’ and they helped devour them.

But the amount of sugar troubled me. Sure, the cookies were delicious, but could I really in good conscience give people these cookies? So in an attempt to put my baking skills to the test and refine a recipe, I tried making the cookies again, but my way. This time, with half the white sugar. But I also was out of quick oats, dates, and really fine dark brown sugar (oh, the tribulations of being a home baker), so instead I used Old-Fashioned rolled oats, that weird brown sugar that Whole Foods sells, and no dates.

And I’ll be the first to tell you, this of course altered the texture of the cookies. They weren’t bad, they were just different (think more like your typical crisp/chewy almond cookie you might get after a meal at a Chinese restaurant – still really tasty and nutty and wholesome, but just a little more crisp than the ideal oatmeal cookie). Being able to compare the cookies and know exactly what I did differently and how these changes affected the second batch is an essential part of learning how to bake. I’ve often yearned for the perfect book about proportions, laid out in some nice chart format, so that you can really tell how each of the different ingredients comes into play.

Looking at the second batch of cookies, I came to a few different theories about why these cookies were less chewy and more crisp:

• The Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats likely did not absorb as much moisture as the quick oats. There were sort of air pockets around them, which I think may have also added to the crisp mouth-feel.
• The lack of dates soaked in water and vanilla likely also resulted in less moisture in the recipe for the oats to soak up, hence the crispier texture.
• The weird Whole Foods brown sugar was not as fine as the dark brown sugar I used the first time, so this may not have been as well-incorporated in the butter, leading to less even caramelization of sugars.

That all being said, the differences in the ingredients I used the second time around likely altered the ultimate result, and I am still curious about what would happen if I used the same ingredients as the first time, but simply decreased the amount of sugar being used. As I write, I’m laughing to myself about the scientific approach I’m taking to this, but hey, how do you get better at anything if you don’t question yourself and figure out why some things work, and others don’t?

Anyway, as far as life goes, I’m still trying to figure out how to sustain myself while also making B4TB happen. After reading lots of stuff about transcribing from home, I decided to take a crack at it, and realized it pays less than the last barista job I had picked up after leaving the non-profit I used to work for. It’s just tricky to find a way to make moolah without compromising values or time that could be used to do something you truly think might be good. But on another note, I will be getting a KitchenAid soon which will help me bake tons of batches at a time, and have been looking up lots of compostable options for packaging.

So thanks again for following along. Maybe I’ll post the Oatmeal Cookie recipe once I’ve perfected it 🙂

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