The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011: Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Well folks, this here is not your mother's oatmeal raisin cookie recipe, or at the very least it is certainly not my mom's recipe. Try as I may, I am extremely UNsuccessful at reproducing her recipe. So, I figured this cookie swap was the perfect time to scout out a new oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. Then, I kicked it up a notch, because if you're anything like me, once it's cold out, not only do you want a midday pick me up in the form of a muffin or a cookie (or three, or five) but you want a beverage to warm you up! This cookie embodies this mindset of mine by combining what I consider to be some of the best of what the cookie and warm beverage world have to offer. It's a chewy cookie with an almost sugar cookie-like base, sprinkled with oatmeal, and it has the spices of a traditional black chai tea.

Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

(Based on Joanne Chang's Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe found in Flour)

Yields 60 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 c or 4 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 c light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 4 large eggs
• 2 c boiling water
• 1 1/2 - 2 c raisins
• 1 tea bag chai tea (e.g. Tazo tea)
• 3 1/2 c whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/16 tsp ground black pepper
• 3 c old fashioned rolled oats

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl off to the side, rehydrate the raisins with the boiling water with the tea bag in it. After fifteen minutes, this will yield nice, large raisins with a hint of chai flavor.
3. Cream together both sugars with the room temperature butter. (This will require approximately 5-7 minutes of beating on medium speed with a hand or stand mixer with intermittent scraping down the sides of the bowl.)
4. Add eggs to the creamed butter and sugar one at a time and mix well.
5. Gently fold flour, baking soda, and spices into the wet ingredients by hand. Do not over mix these ingredients or your cookies will be tough. Only fold until the spices and flour are just incorporated throughout the dough.
6. Strain raisins from chai tea. Fold the raisins and oatmeal into the dough.
7. Place flattened dollops of dough that are slightly larger than a tablespoon onto your greased cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 11-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned and have just begun to set. Remove and allow them to cool for 10 minutes before transferring them to cooling racks.

In the past week I have had more than my fair share of cookies, as I also received two delicious packages of cookies from my matches in the cookie swap. I enjoyed Butterbeer Cookies from Peace, Love, and Bagels and Peppermint Mocha Cookies from Delectable Baked Goods, and I look forward to recreating these special cookies and all the other cookies that were exchanged for friends and family once the organizers of this event have compiled together the recipes and posted them on one site. (Check back later for that link!)

Wishing you a cookie-filled, spirited holiday!