American Cookie #8 {1939 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the eighth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, which is a recipe that dates back as far as the 1880's and had evolved over time!

The History of Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Cooks have been folding oats into baked goods to stretch the dough, enhance the dough, and make things seem healthier ever since the 1880's and maybe even before that! Early oatmeal cookies used butter or lard and some used molasses or white sugar. By 1902 oatmeal cookies were made with almond extract and were said to taste like macaroons. But the good old oatmeal cookie really secured its place in American baking in World War I because the country was rationing foods and goods and according to the Lincoln Star & Evening Journal, oatmeal raisin cookies were good for the country, patriotic even, a true "wheat-saving" recipe. 

In more recent times, oats have been lauded as a health food, good for your heart and so the simple, no-nonsense oatmeal cookie, is still as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. The recipe shared here today was printed on the back of the round Quaker Oats box ever since 1939! The cookies are aptly named Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies because the original recipe called for baking soda to vanish in a teaspoon of water, but also vanishing was used to describe how fast the cookies disappeared!

My Results:  For seven weeks now, the American Cookie cookbook has consistently produced the most perfect cookies imaginable, until now. This oatmeal raisin recipe is the original recipe from the back of the Quaker Oats canister from 1939, but I didn't like it. Not at all. First of all, the cookies didn't bake up well. Batch after batch of the cookie dough baked up raw in the center and I found myself overbaking them in an effort to cook them all the way through. Next, the cookies were tough, almost like there were just too many oats. Also, I had a hunch the recipe was calling for too much sugar (3/4 cup brown and 1/2 white) and I was right. The cookies were too sweet. And finally, just not enough raisins. Overall this recipe was just disappointing. To me, an oatmeal raisin cookie is one of my all-time favorites, and what makes the cookie so good is that it's not too sweet, has a good chewiness, and has more of a granola bar kind of breakfasty flavor. This is not that at all. Saying all that, the cookie is good enough to eat, but not as good as the rest of the cookies I've made during this bake off and I wouldn't make it again.

My Rating:  2.5 out of 5 stars! My least favorite of all the cookies I've made during this challenge. These are edible, but not worth making again.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest!

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes 4 dozen

14 tablespoons (1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter), at room temp

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup raisins

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets. (I like to use parchment paper)

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat long enough to blend the eggs, about 30 seconds.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, and blend on low speed to just combine, 20 seconds. Add the oats and raisins, and blend on low until just combined, 20 seconds.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets (I use a cookie scoop for uniform cookies), spacing them about 2" apart. Place a pan in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container.