Lunch Box of Perfection

I adore the people of the public high school my younger daughter (the one who got locked out of the house by accident in the incident that inspired the Pavlova of Guilt) goes to. As the school year is at an end I wanted to go by and wish them a happy summer and bring a box of a successful batch of cookies.

Oatmeal-raisin cookies sound like a very basic thing and they should be, but I had never quite found a recipe that gave me my personal ideal- not too sweet, soft and tender with just a little chew to it, and a gentle balanced flavor that makes them easy to eat many of- delicious, comforting, and a little like food.  I realized in the name-day cookie experiment for Charlene (our older daughter). (If you are not in the Mediterranean, you may not know this custom- it's brilliant. The Saint for whom one is named has a holiday, and everyone sharing that name celebrates on that day. So central is this social device that one would take out an advertisement in the paper in smaller cities if one were not receiving visitors on that day. In Athens, the names celebrating each day are announced in the metro! It's a hospitable region of the world; when it is your name day, you offer everyone- classmates, co-workers- a treat). These were great- just the classic toll house cookie recipe minus a little flour and with lots of oats. I thought they would be even better in the classic combination: oatmeal raisin, exploiting the raisin's affinity for rum.

Everything we need

Oatmeal-(rum) raisin cookies:

1 C/250 g butter (I used salted butter, so I did not add salt)

3/4 C/ 150 g brown sugar

1/2 C/ 100 g white sugar

some vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp/ 5 ml baking soda

1 tsp./ 5 ml salt (if you are using unsalted butter)

1/2 C / 50 g whole wheat pastry flour (Why? For the rich flavor!)

1 C /100 g white flour

2 1/2 C / 250 g oats

1/2 C dark raisins

2 T rum

cinnamon to taste

Heat the oven to 350 F/170 C, and line 2 baking sheets with non-stick parchment.

Put the raisins in a small glass dish and microwave them with the rum on low power for a minute- they will absorb it nicely!

Then cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, add the eggs and vanilla, and then the flours with salt and baking soda. Last stir in the oats and the rum-soaked raisins, with cinnamon to taste (1/2 tsp.?). I usually like a pronounced cinnamon flavor, but the balance of the butter and the salt and the brown sugar and the rum is wonderful- the rum adds a nice mid-mouth depth- and you won't want to cover that up.

Place on the baking sheet like this:

(the oreo-sized cookie is for spacing and scale)

Now the tricky part- put them in, set the timer for 5 or 6 minutes, then switch sheets top to bottom. Time another 4 minutes or so, then check often- they should look baked, with dry tops, but hardly any color taken at all. Here is the top and bottom side of a perfect batch:

See how the bottom (on the right) is hardly darker than the top of the cookie? That is what you want- baked, but just- it should need to set up on the cookie sheet for a minute before you can even remove it with a spatula. They will continue to set as they cool.

Of course, if you let them turn golden like a regular cookie, they will just be regular oatmeal-raisin cookies (albeit with that base-note of rum), For me the delight is in their tender softness and hint of chewiness (If I were going for crisp, I would make oatmeal-walnut, or oatmeal-coconut- something that lends itself to a little snap)- everything the raisin underscores.

This is a perfect school snack, or the perfect snack to bring to a school. I made a double batch (twice the amounts listed) and that made 7 dozen nice-sized ones- one big box and lots left over (some for the kids at the coffee roaster downstairs I shop from because they keep asking what I am making with all the oats).