Perfect Oatmeal Cookies

Photo by David O. Andersen

There isn't much I wouldn't do for a warm, melty, soft oatmeal cookie. 

My standards for the perfect oatmeal cookie have been set pretty high. I'm a huge fan of the oatmeal Heath bar cookies from Breaking New Grounds in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and I've long considered theirs one of the best.

Using American recipes in Berlin can sometimes be a little tricky. Some ingredients that are staples in the good ole' US of A are hard to find here - if they exist at all. One of those ingredients happens to be brown sugar.

Yes, I hear you, my German friends, "We have brown sugar, you American dummy!" Yes, I know, but it's simply not the same. Brown sugar in America is fine, dense, and damp, in Germany it's almost identical to regular, granulated sugar, however, it is, in fact, brown.

Needless to say, this causes a bit of an issue when your recipe calls for these ingredients. In this case, with oatmeal cookies, that brown sugar is a pretty big deal.

Being the resourceful Boy Scout that I am (or was), I came up with a fix and rewrote myself an American recipe in German. Well, not in German per-say, but with German ingredients that almost makeup for the missing bits of the cookie dough.

So here goes, my German-American Oatmeal Cookie recipe.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup of softened butter (225g - you're welcome)*
• 1 cup of regular, German brown sugar (In America? Use the regular stuff and skip the next ingredient.)
• 1 tbs Goldsaft** 
• 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp Bourbon Vanille Mühle***
• 1 tbs water****
• 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour (type 405 - again, you're welcome)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups of oat granola, any kind you'd like*****

OPTIONAL:

• 1 cup of chopped walnuts
• 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips*****
• 1 cup of raisins

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°c)
2. Blend your butter and sugars until creamy, then beat in the eggs - one at a time.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, vanilla and salt (this combines them nicely). Once they're blended, mix them into your creamy butter/sugar mix.
3. Add that oat granola and either or both of the optional ingredients.
4. I find using a regular spoon works best for placing the dough on the cooking sheet. Stack it high for a thicker cookie, keep it low for a crispier treat.
5. Let everything sit for

Bake the cookies for around 10 minutes (more if you like 'em crispy) and let them cool for 5-10 minutes on the rack. 

TIP: Let the dough sit for 10 minutes or more, it'll make the oats a bit softer in the end.

*I hear you, "Wow, Paula Deen, that's a lot of butter!" And to that I say, you're making gooey cookies, it's somewhat necessary. You're obviously not going to eat them all in one sitting... right?

**To make up for the lack of the moist brown sugar, I added a tablespoon of this business. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing as molasses. Just take it out if you're in the States, or don't, up to you.

***I used this fancy stuff instead of liquid vanilla extract (as it's hard to find here in the DE), it usually comes in a small bottle with a grinder on the top. It's chunks of actual vanilla bean and is pretty potent. Don't go crazy with this stuff, vanilla lovers. If you've got the liquid, use two teaspoons.

****The water makes up for the lack of moisture in the vanilla. If you have the liquid, you don't need the water.

*****Because I'm terrible at German and can't really read packaging in grocery stores, I had a hard time finding quick cooking oats (which is what the recipe called for). I decided to use a granola mixture because I knew it would get soft rather quickly and picked one that was packed with oats. Feel free to explore here. Just remember, if it's super sweet, you might want to take some of the white sugar out of the recipe.

Image of Cookie Monster from Mashable.com