I have some stories to tell in the coming days about the outdoor bread oven in Chezbonneau, France, but for the moment, my story is about a cookie. The story begins with the recipe for Magnolia’s “Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chip Cookie“, but takes a detour to become something quite a bit different. The detour was purposeful.

DETOUR

1. Remove the peanut butter chips for a simple oatmeal cookie.
2. Replace light brown sugar with dark brown sugar.
3. Increase the brown sugar and decrease the amount of refined white sugar.
4. Increase the amount of cinnamon by just a bit.

FEATURED INGREDIENTS

    

FRANCISCANS

Chezbonneau’s recipe for a dark, moist, chewy, hint-of-molasses oatmeal cookie

1 cup all-purpose flour

¹/₂ teaspoon baking soda

¹/₂ teaspoon salt

¹/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1¹/₂ sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed DARK brown sugar

¹/4 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1¹/₂ teaspoons vanilla extract

2¹/₂ cups quick-cooking oats

DIRECTIONS (as per Magnolia’s cookbook)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Stir in the oats. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Bake for 11–13 minutes. (I SUGGEST NO MORE THAN 11 minutes for a moist, chewy cookie.) Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

TECHNICAL ADVICE

I have had a hard time getting the oatmeal evenly distributed into this relatively dry batter. I decided to use the dough hook on my mixer to see if that might do the trick, and it did a great job – no over-beating, even distribution of oatmeal late in the game.

DELIGHTFUL

  

HAVE A SWEET DAY