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This is THE Oatmeal Raisin Cookie.

That is, if you like a crisp on the edge, chewy in the middle with loads of raisins, and cinnamon and oats.

It has quickly become the page that the Bouchon Bakery cookbook falls open to.  And the page stained with the molecular residue of reading and re- reading the recipe.

Lets be clear.  This recipe is  a pain. The whole book is a pain.  It involves behavior change: weighing ingredients rather than measuring.   And the recipe is very specific not only about the weight of the ingredients, but also about  the texture of the butter, the ratio of raisins, the amount of time to mix things.  But it’s worth it if you want to perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. You can see below that ingredient amounts are given in both grams and in volume measurements.     The volume measurements can be used to help approximate, but now having measured the ingredients following the gram weight measure, just using the volume measurement can throw the ratio really off.  It’s shocking really, how the level of ‘packing’ on things like flour and brown sugar can change the recipe ratio and thus the resultant cookie.  Use a scale with a tare setting (or be prepared to do a lot of arithmatic) and measure with the volume measurements as a guideline for scooping out of your bins, but follow the weight measurements.

The first bunch of times I made this, I cursed the egg measurement. The weight measurement worked out to be about 1.2 large eggs.  Raw eggs are hard to divide nicely.  Did you know that?  It’s a slimey business.  Oaths were muttered, but the resulting cookies were worth the effort of dividing.    But then lo!  Jumbo Eggs!  Jumbo eggs work out to be close to the perfect size and weight called for in this recipe. ( For sanity’s sake, I believe the cookies are tolerant of a plus or minus a gram or two off on the egg measurement.) Hurray! Expletive free cookies!

After making these countless times, I’ve now modified it to our family’s tastes.  Nuts (walnuts to be specific) have been added.  The raisins are all unsulphured seedless dark raisins (I do not like golden raisins).  Thomas Keller and staff somehow think that it’s appropriate to make six (6!) cookies out of this recipe.  I think that if you want a cookie the size of your head, go ahead and do that.  That’s not for me.  We make 18-20 cookies.  But the core of the recipe remains.  Feel free to modify for your tastes.

The Oatmeal Raisin Cookie – Adapted from the Bouchon Bakery book by Thomas Keller

144 grams/1 cup  All Purpose Flour

7.7 grams/1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon (Yes, that’s about a tablespoon!)

7.4 grams/1-1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

3.6  grams/1-1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

140 grams/1/2 cup +3-1/2 Tblspns Light Brown Sugar

69 grams/1/4 cup + 1-1/2 Tblspns Granulated Sugar

155 grams/5.5 ounces Unsalted Butter at Room temperature

62 grams/1/4 cup Egg  (This works out to be 1 Jumbo egg)

7.7 grams/1-1/4 teaspoon Vanilla paste

155 grams/2 cups Old Fashioned Oats

156 grams/1 cup Organic Dark Raisins

130 grams/1 cup Chopped Walnuts

Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.  Whisk together in a medium bowl.

Beat the butter with the paddle attachment in the mix (if you have one) and cream until it looks like the texture of mayonnaise.  Add the sugars and mix for 3-4 minutes until fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Add egg and vanilla paste and mix on low speed for 15-30 seconds.  It looks broken and a bit curdled now.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.  Scrape the bowl to incorporate stray stuff.  Add oats, raisins and chopped nuts and mix just until it’s combined.  Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Divide dough into 18-20 golf bull-ish size pieces.  Bake cookies until golden brown on Silpat lined sheets – about 15 minutes.  Cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing.

Enjoy!