"The only real stumbling block is the fear of failure. In cooking, you have got to have a what-the-hell attitude." ~ Julia Child

Worth the wait: Seven year oatmeal cookies

by Julie Tilsner on August 2, 2010

in Kid Food, Sugar and Spite, Sweet!

I will eventually get around to everything. I promise. Sometimes it might take me years, but I’ll get to it.

I clipped this recipe for oatmeal cookies out of a May, 2003 issue of Parenting Magazine. That was back when I was a fully-employed freelance writer for this book, and others. Back when magazines still had a future. And hearty freelance budgets.

A lot of water under that bridge. And isn’t it just like me to be a day late and a dollar short? I just last week found this clip and decided the time was right to try these cookies.

This recipe came from Cynthia Phillips, a mom in Salisbury, Maryland, who wrote that this cookie recipe had been in her family for 50 years, and was the one her grandmother used to wow the kinfolk with.

Since I come with no family recipes to speak of, I like to poach others’ when I can.

Here’s the recipe;

1 cup brown sugar (packed, of course. But if you’re a bad home cook like me, you may not know this basic fact.)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup (two sticks) butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal (I used Trader Joe’s old-fashioned oats, which I don’t know are the quick-cooking kind or not. Worked out fine.)
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour

preheat oven to 350. Cream both sugars, butter, vanilla and almond extract in a bowl. Add each egg, one at a time. Set aside

Mix the oatmeal, baking soda and flour in a separate bowl. Mix into the butter and sugar mixture.

Drop the batter by the spoonful onto un-greased baking sheets.

Set aside your salmonella fears and dole out appropriate amounts of dough to the children. This is a summer baking experience after all…

bake about 12 minutes or until lightly brown around the edges. Cool slightly before transferring them onto a cookie rack.

There may or may not be any left by this time to transfer into Tupperware. But if you do have some remaining, they keep well for about a week.

And yumm? Chewy, buttery, not too sweet. And that almond extract gives it a little something special.

Be better than me. Don’t wait seven years. Make these cookies today and tell me what you think.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

Bruce August 2, 2010 at 4:50 pm

The almond extract is intriguing…

Reply

Ronnie August 15, 2010 at 6:58 pm

1/2 CUP of almond extract? Is that a typo???

Reply

Julie August 15, 2010 at 7:49 pm

Cup? Ack! Yes, a typo, of course. How typical. It’s 1/2 teaspoon…

Reply

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