It’s the second week of January and I have to meet my New Year’s resolution to make one great cookie a week. And again I turn to Cookie Love by Mindy Segal.
Her story for this cookie is funny. She’s a cookie genius. She can make anything. Actually, she couldn’t. She could never master that very basic oatmeal raisin cookie, at least not to her satisfaction. She wanted the right snap, the right crispness.
Finally, with the help of a colleague, she learned the secret. Ditch the raisins. Use butterscotch chips. The melting chips provide a smooth avenue to cookie crispness. This is the one you remember from your childhood. The one you want for breakfast tomorrow.
Yeah. Breakfast. Or lunch, or dinner, or when you are still glued to Netflix long after midnight has past. It's crisp. There will be crumbs. That's life in Cookie World.
Oatmeal Scotchies
Yield: 42 cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½ cup cane sugar
- ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 extra-large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup cake flour
- ½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- 1 cup (6 ounces) butterscotch chips
Preparation:
Heat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of half sheet (13 by 18-inch) pans with parchment paper.
Spread the oats across a third half sheet pan and toast lightly until the oats smell like cooked oatmeal, approximately 5 minutes. (Keep the oven on for the cookies.) Let cool. In a spice grinder, grind 2 tablespoons of the oats into a fine powder.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter briefly on medium speed for 5 to 10 seconds. Add the sugars and beat until the butter mixture is aerated and pale in color, approximately 4 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to bring the batter together.
Crack the egg into a small cup or bowl and add the vanilla.
Place the powdered and whole oats, flours, baking soda, and salts in a bowl and whisk to combine. Add the butterscotch chips and stir until lightly coated in flour.
On medium speed, add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and mix until the batter resembles cottage cheese, approximately 5 seconds. With a rubber spatula, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to bring the batter together. Mix on medium speed for another 20 seconds to make nearly homogeneous.
Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed until the batter comes together but still looks shaggy, approximately 30 seconds. Do not overmix. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. With a plastic bench scraper, bring the dough completely together by hand.
Portion the dough into 8 mounds using a ¾ ounce (1 ½ -tablespoon) ice cream scoop and evenly distribute onto a prepared sheet pan. (The cookies will spread significantly as they bake.)
Bake for 8 minutes. Give the pan a sturdy tap against the counter or the oven to deflate the cookies. Rotate the pan and continue to bake until the edges are a deep golden brown, the centers have fallen, and the cookies are beginning to crisp and brown, another 4 to 6 minutes. (Do not underbake or the cookies won’t crisp up when they cool.) Let the cookies cool completely on the pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The cookies are best when baked the day the dough is made.
Source: Cookie Love by Mindy Segal [Ten Speed Press, 2015]