International holiday blogger cookie exchange

It's been non-stop cookie time over here at Casa de Tofugirl lately; some of you might be thinking that it's about time since even my blog title has the word cookie in it, and yet, I hardly ever write about them. What can I say--I'm not great at sticking to the point. But nevermind! Here comes another post about cookies!


It's been all about cookie swaps lately, in person, by mail, or how about this, the virtual cookie exchange! The 2nd Annual International Holiday Cookie Exchange was hosted by Lori of Fake Food Free and Andrea of Food Embrace. Rather than sending each other actual cookies, we were partnered up in a round-robin to exchange cookie recipes; we were then to make our cookies and post about them, so here's mine! (I just want to say too, that this is brilliant, because you get to keep your cookies. Does that make me sound greedy??)


My recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Drop Cookies came from Pam over at the Rauber House. I have to admit; when I first read the recipe, I was a bit surprised because her recipe only uses cinnamon as a flavoring, and doesn't call for vanilla or nutmeg, or any other flavorings that I usually associate with an oatmeal cookie. I only made one substitution, and that was to use currants in place of raisins (mostly because I had no raisins but did have currants. Funny, that!) but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It seemed like a fairly ordinary oatmeal cookie while I was mixing and shaping them...but then I tasted a bit of the raw dough and thought "Hm, tastes like cinnamon toast crunch..." Then I put them in the oven and my GOSH. They are, without a doubt, the most amazing smelling oatmeal cookies I've baked (and I have baked a LOT). I can't explain how such a simple recipe produces such amazing cookies, but these are divine. Pam had this to say in an email to me: "My husband loves them exactly like this, especially after a tomato based meal and always with red wine." I can totally see why! Next time I make these, I'll use raisins for sure, and I think maybe dried cranberries would also be delicious. You should all go make these. I've reproduced Pam's recipe below. Thanks, Pam!! (And of course, thanks to Lori and Andrea for organizing this!)


Oatmeal Raisin Drop Cookies © Pam Rauber, Decatur, Georgia

Makes one dozen two-inch size cookies
1- 1/3 cups Old Fashioned Oatmeal, not quick cooking oatmeal
¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup packed light brown sugar
One large egg
One stick or ½ cup cold unsalted butter
One handful of raisins

Preheat oven to 400° F

Combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Measure out and pack brown sugar.

In a mixing bowl, cut up butter in pieces and mix on high until butter is at a whipping/airy phase. Reduce the speed and add the brown sugar and allow to completely incorporate into the butter. Add the egg, then flour mixture.

Slow the mixer down to lowest speed and add the oatmeal and then raisins.

On a greased cookie sheet (using the paper wrapper from the butter) or one lined with parchment paper, spoon out a chunk of dough and drop onto pan. I use a soup spoon. This recipe will make 12 two-inch size cookies. You may have to rob dough from one cookie to place on another. The cookies should be approximately the same chunk size but not to sweat…this is the beauty of homemade…irregular.

If you have a refrigerator large enough to hold the sheet pan, I place my cookie dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes just to cool them down. If not, preheat the oven just before prepping cookie recipe.

Bake in a confirmed (thermometer reading) 400° F oven for nine minutes.

While Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are a generic cookie, this particular recipe has been developed by me (Pam!) after many, many tests. Please extend credit to me (Pam!) when copying.