Salad Cookies

Oatmeal is good for you. Fruit is good for you. That means if cookies are made with oatmeal and (dried) fruit, they must be good for you! Obviously. One of my really good friends from college and I decided that oatmeal raisin cookies should really just be called salad cookies, since they are basically health food. 

For our wedding I made a bunch of cookies to put in goodie bags for our guests who came from out of town and stayed in the hotel. (Out of town bags for anyone familiar with that wedding planning term.) "Salad Cookies" were one of the type of cookies included. 

When I got a facebook message from my cousin the other day asking for the recipe for the cookies because her mother had been raving about the cookies when she got home from our wedding I was more than happy to oblige. 

And ever since I told my cousin about my version of the cookies, I have been having a serious craving for them. I gave into that craving tonight. 

My starting point is Quaker Oatmeal's Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, the one you can find on the inside of the lid of Quaker Oats! From there, I make some pretty significant alterations. 

To make the cookies the moistest possible I add coconut. But even though I really like coconut, not everyone does so I put the coconut in the food processor for about 30 seconds to cut it up into pieces that are pretty indistinguishable in the dough. 

The next alteration is to seriously up the amount of spices. I loooove spices. Especially "pumpkin pie spices" like nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. The recipe only calls for cinnamon, but I like to double the amount of cinnamon and also throw in some nutmeg and cloves. About half a teaspoon of each. 

When I went to make the cookies tonight, I didn't have any ground nutmeg. Lucky for me, I did have some whole nutmegs. I had never used fresh ground nutmeg in my salad cookies, but I am glad that I have now! It added a very distinct flavor even though I only used about a third of a nutmeg.

Ready for my version of oatmeal raisin cookies?

Ingredients: 

1/2  cup (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened

3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2  cup granulated sugar

2  eggs (I use egg beaters)

1  teaspoon vanilla (I doubled this)

1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour

1  teaspoon baking soda

1  teaspoon ground cinnamon (I doubled this)

1/2  teaspoon salt 

3  cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)

1  cup raisins

Mrs. G additions:

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/3 fresh nutmeg, grated

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. 

Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. 

Put coconut into food processor for 30 seconds. Add coconut to dough. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. I like to take them out when they still look a little raw in the middle which results in a softer, chewier cookie.

Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!