Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These really are the very best.  The molasses makes them much moister than the recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats box, and if you do cut up the raisins, even small children who normally despise things made with big fat raisins may find them unobjectionable. 
Beware:  the dough is particularly wonderful, and large numbers of potential cookies may vanish without a trace.
This recipe came from a 1950s edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook.

1 1/4 C sugar
6 T butter

1/4 C light molasses
2 eggs

1 3/4 flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda

2 C quick-cooking rolled oats
1 C chopped raisins
1/2 C chopped nuts

Sift flour, cinnamon, salt and soda together. 

Cream butter and sugar together.  When light and fluffy, beat in the molasses and eggs.

Stir in the dry ingrediens, oats, raisins and nuts.

Drop by teaspoons on a greased or nonstick baking sheet.  Bake 375° C until turning gold at the edges.

Notes:  the quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant) really do better here than the regular oats.   They absorb liquid faster and the dough has proper consistency for baking right away.  If you must use regular oats, let the batter sit, refrigerated, for several hours or overnight before baking. 

Cutting up the raisins is easy in a food processor--reserve 1/4 C of the sugar or flour and process with the raisins.  The dry sugar or flour will coat the raisin pieces as they are cut up so they don't just conglomerate together into a single pasty mass.

This recipe is very tolerant of customizations, like using a different dried fruit of your choice, like dried apricots with cardamom instead of cinnamon; or increasing the amount of fruit or nuts; e.g.

Very Fruity Oatmeal Cookies:

Substitute
    1 tsp ground cardamom
    1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg or mace
    1/8 tsp ground aniseed
 for the cinnamon. 
Substitute
    1 1/2 C dried nectarines
    3/4 C dried apricots
    3/4 C dried pears
for the raisins.  Chop these very finely in the food processor with 1/4 C of the sugar and 1/4 C of the oats.

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