I’m not known for my patience in the kitchen. Just ask my mother who spent many years firmly insisting that the oven not be used like a microwave (which did little to stop my hungry teenage self from cranking it to 500 degrees in hopes of enjoying my frozen pizza in 3 minutes or less). I blame this lack of patience for my previous failed attempts at making crunchy oatmeal cookies. The occasional cookie recipe says to bake them for 18-20 minutes… but who can wait that long? Cookies are only supposed to take 8-12 minutes! It actually took me several tries at playing around with ingredients – using white sugar instead of brown, using a higher butter-to-flour ratio, etc. – before I had a duh moment and realized that the crunchiness potential exists in every cookie, if you just leave leave it in the oven long enough.
Don’t get me wrong – I love the occasional sturdy oatmeal cookie, toothsome and full of chewy raisins. And I am firmly on the side of “soft and chewy” when it comes to most other types of cookie. But for one reason or another, a delicately crispy, buttery oatmeal cookie – with little bits of chocolate and raisins – really floats my boat.
What I like about this cookie is that you can use whole wheat flour, or oat flour, or whatever hearty flour wags your tail, and it tastes like it belongs (then again, maybe everything tastes like it belongs with a good hit of butter and sugar). This recipe is very versatile, and you can toss in lots of things – sunflower seeds, chopped pecans, flax seeds, dried cranberries, raisins, currants, milk-, dark-, or white-chocolate, coconut. Whatever makes your skirt fly up.
Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¾ cup flour I used oat flour - you can use whole wheat or all purpose, instead
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup add-ins I used 1/4 cup currants, 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, and 1/4 cup flax seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, sugar, honey and vanilla until fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and stir to blend. Stir in oats and add-ins.
- Drop tablespoons of dough onto greased cookie sheet. Dip a flat-bottomed glass in demarara sugar, and flatten cookies, dipping the bottom of the glass in sugar for each one. Bake for about 18 minutes, until crisp and golden.
Such a delicious oat cookie and crunchy as promised! I’ve made them twice in one week. I live with cookie monster.
The recipe was easy and I happened to have the correct amount of ingredients .however, your bake time is way off.
It’s closer to 10-12 minutes..
I left a small batch in longer and at 13 minutes they were burnt to a crisp.
Ovens and baking pans can make a big difference in timing, especially in the last couple of minutes. Always good to keep an eye! Glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂