Gingerbread Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Photo: Cassandra

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups unbleached granulated sugar

1/2 cup molasses

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 cups oatmeal (I like the old-fashioned kind)

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

With a stand mixer or hand mixer and large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light in texture.

Blend the molasses, eggs, and vanilla into the butter mixture until it becomes a uniform color.

Add all the ingredients except the raisins and nuts to the butter mixture and thoroughly combine. Fold in raisins and nuts. Be sure to thoroughly fold the bottom ingredients to the top to ensure a homogeneous dough.

Line your baking pan with parchment paper. Drop the dough in mounded teaspoonfuls onto the parchment paper. I like to use two spoons to help me shape the dough: one to pull the dough out of the bowl, the other to shape the top of the dough ball. Be sure to give each cookie plenty of space around (about 2 inches in between), because these do spread.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and bake the cookies 11-12 minutes, or until the outer edges are slightly firm (however the center should be still soft).

Once the cookies are removed from the oven, allow them to rest 5 minutes on the pan before removing them. After the 5 minutes, simply slide the parchment with the cookies off the pan and onto the counter. Allow the cookies to cool to room temperature before packing them into air-tight containers. Makes 5 dozen cookies.