Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Chai

I love to bake.  I do.  I find it relaxing and it makes me think of Potions class from Harry Potter.  You mix a bunch of random shit together, add some heat and you magically wind up with something totally new.  It was awesome when I was a kid and it's awesome now.


The problem with baking is that when I bake a batch of cookies, there are just so many fucking cookies.  Same goes for pie, cake, creme brulee, you name it.  And if you're like me and have ZERO self-control, you wind up eating everything you made within the next 24 hours.  And then feel disgusting.  And swear never to bake again.  And wind up baking raspberry tartines the next day.  Such is life.


Solution: bake less!  I decided to bake my absolute favorite kind of cookie tonight: oatmeal raisin.  There's just so much more texture and crunch than chocolate chip -- and if I'm in the mood for chocolate it means I want a whole bar or a slice of flour-less chocolate cake... not chocolate chips in something else.  I found this awesome recipe for Chai Oatmeal Raisin cookies at Amandeleine -- a great baking blog that you should definitely check out when you get the chance -- so I adapted it so that it makes only FIVE cookies.  (Or more or less, depending on how big or small you like your cookies to be). 

Only five!  And I clearly shmushed mine all around, but they're still yummy

Ingredients:

1 cup oats (you can also just use 2 packets of oatmeal -- I used Quaker Oats brown maple oatmeal)

½ cup of raisins

5 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup of white sugar (eyeball it in a ¼ measuring cup – and remember! You can never have enough sugar!)

1 egg

smidge of vanilla

½ cup flour

½ teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt

1 chai tea bag

2 cups boiling water

pinch of cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of ground black pepper

** Remember, with the spices it’s all to taste, so if you want more of a kick to your cookies, add more spice – it’s your food after all.

You can use any kind of Chai tea, but I like Twinings

Recipe:

1. Add chai tea to boiling water and let it steep until the water is dark.  Add raisins and lower heat and let them absorb the tea for about 10 minutes.  Drain.  Raisins will be fat and saturated (kind of like when you make vodka gummy bears... which are so nasty, by the way)

Better than vodka gummy bears

2. In a small bowl, beat together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter until smooth.  

3. Beat in egg and a splash of vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mixture.

4. In a separate, small bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients excluding oatmeal: pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, flour, baking powder, salt.

I think the spices make it so pretty

5. Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients slowly, beating all the while.

Conveniently enough, one of my stirrer blade-thingies (what are they called?) fell out and refused to go back in.  As you can see, I had to settle for just one to combine the dry and wet ingredients.

6. Gently fold oats and raisins into the batter.  

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

8. Cover bowl and place in refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

9. Spoon out cookies onto baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Mine spread out a lot -- be careful to keep them far enough away if you don't want your cookies to touch.  Not that it actually matters, it all still tastes good -- I promise you!