Best Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

For fans of the Best old fashioned oatmeal raisin cookies, this is the recipe for you. Not cakey or doughy, these cookies are chewy.

Filled with raisins, oats and chopped pecans, they bake in just a few minutes and come out of the oven ready to devour.

The eggs in this recipe are chilled for an hour before mixing with the other ingredients, giving them a little extra structure to make them chewier than most oatmeal cookies. For a more traditional touch, substitute walnuts for the pecans.

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup raisins
3 large eggs, beaten

Combine the beaten eggs with the vanilla extract and the raisins in a small bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

With an electric mixer, cream together the unsalted butter, the brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy.

Whisk together the all purpose flour, kosher salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir this mixture into the creamed sugar and butter with a wooden spoon until all the ingredients are well blended.

Stir in the chilled egg and raisin mixture, and when it has been blended into the dough, fold in the rolled oats and the chopped pecans. Make sure everything is well incorporated.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. When the edges are golden, remove the pans from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Food For Thought - Some people have made a batch of this recipe substituting 1/2 cup wheat germ in place of 1/2 cup of oats - it doesn't really affect the texture too much, but there is a slight change in flavor.

Good To Know - These cookies are good to freeze in small batches if tightly sealed in a resealable baggie then wrapped in plastic wrap. The smaller pack size lets you thaw out only the cookies you need.

You Might Need:

• Kitchen Supply Aluminum Half Size Sheet Pan 18-inch by 13-inch

• Calphalon 12-by-17-Inch Rectangular Nonstick Cooling Rack

• Silpat 11-5/8-by-16-1/2-Inch Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat

• Oxo Good Grips Cookie Scoop