My Dream Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

And the three methods to guarantee perfection

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Oatmeal raisin cookies are my favourite cookie, and that’s exactly why I’ve never published a recipe for one - until now.

I’m moving house this week, so my camera is on vacation at the bottom of a cardboard box. But hopefully despite this iphone clunker of a picture, you get the absolute immaculate vibe of these cookies. I have honestly been working on this recipe (in some capacity) for about five years, but I’m finally ready to share it with you.

In order to explain why it’s taken me so long to share this recipe, I need to explain the intricacies of my standards around oatmeal raisin cookies. You see for me, an oatmeal raisin cookie needs to be:

• soft, but not cakey.

• crisp, but not crunchy.

• chewy, but not dense.

While developing this recipe, I’ve toyed with dozens of different ingredients and techniques to find the right balance of soft, crisp and chewy. For a while, I sort of lost hope that a truly perfect vegan oatmeal raisin cookie could be made without eggs or butter, but boy was I wrong. I just needed to do what I do best and put on my scientist hat and get to work on cracking the code.

Ultimately, this recipe uses three techniques to guarantee the perfect texture and flavour, and I’m going to tell you about them right now. These probably aren’t actual established baking methods, and my “science” is usually better described as “speculation”, but you get the idea. The exciting thing is, you can apply these methods to pretty much any cookie recipe, so they’re all-round useful.

Three Methods for Perfect Cookies

1. The Three Sugar Method

Sugar (not eggs) is probably the most important ingredient when tweaking the texture of any cookie recipe, I’ve found. For this recipe, I use three different kinds of sugar to guarantee a cookie that has a crisp bite to the edges, a satisfyingly chewy interior and a really deliciously warming, malty flavour. I’m not going to tell you which sugars they are (you’ll have to read the recipe at the bottom of this newsletter for that) but I will explain that one of these sugars is an “invert” sugar.

I won’t go into too much detail on what an invert sugar is (because many of you will fall to actual sleep), but essentially its any sweetener that’s made by splitting sugar into its component parts (sucrose and glucose). Invert sugars are usually in liquid form, like syrups, and they’re used commonly to help retain moisture in baked goods (iiiiinteresting, verrrry interesting). I decided to use one of the most strongly flavoured invert sugars out there, which means that we’re simultaneously affecting the flavour and texture of the cookie. I know about this stuff because I used to run an ice cream company, and invert sugars are also used to prevent ice crystals from forming in frozen goods!

This technique of using three different sugars is also an old ice cream makers trick. Some sugars provide unique flavour to a recipe. Others assist with texture and bite. Layering up your sugars in this way helps to fine tune your recipe, without relying on other ingredients (like eggs. Stupid eggs).

2. The Apple Juice Method

For some reason, Americans appear to hate raisins. I’ve never understood this. They’re one of the most delicious dried fruits out there and work so well in baked goods. But, I do feel like they need a little help sometimes. There’s nothing worse than a scorched raisin puffed and blackened on the outside of a cookie or cake.

So whenever I’m baking with them, especially in oatmeal raisin cookies, I use the apple juice method. This involves simmering your raisins in a few tablespoons of apple juice over a low heat, until they’ve soaked up all that extra moisture. Being slightly rehydrated means they won’t burn so easily in the oven. You’ll find they hold their texture well, but the ones in the centre stay beautifully soft and syrupy, contributing to that chewy/gooey texture we’re all bonkers for. You can also do the same thing but with water, if you find the apple juice variation too sweet.

3. The Tray Smack Method

If you’ve followed any of my other recipes, you’ll know how much I love the tray smack method. When cookies bake, they tend to puff up, because of the raising agents and also any air bubbles in the dough. We want this, otherwise they’d end up flat and crisp like tuilles or brandy snaps. But if they’re too puffy, the cookies essentially just become little cakes.

The tray smack method involves firmly tapping the baking sheet on the counter as soon as the cookies come out of the oven. At this point they’re still very soft and malleable, and the shock of the tray smack partially “deflates” the cookies in the centre. This means that the middle of the cookies becomes slightly denser than the outside, giving a chewy texture once fully cooled. Again, you can do this with any cookie recipe, not just this one, but I would recommend one other trick to ensure it works well. In order to incorporate plenty of tiny air bubbles in the cookie dough, be sure to cream your vegan butter and sugar together, like you would a cake, until light and fluffy. This can take a good few minutes with a stand mixer, so don’t rush the process!

OK, and that’s it. I’m holding off on the weekly update this time because there’s so much going on with the house move. I’ll save it for next time when I’ll also tell you about some of the best stuff I ate while in Toronto!

Here’s your recipe.

LOVE YOU!

P.s. Dog tax

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This Week’s Recipe: Perfect Patmeal Raisin Cookies

(With Downloadable PDF Version)