Ode to Sir Jake Kelly - The Oatmeal Cookie Curse

The Band is back together.  Keith, Jake (the oatmeal cookie savior), and Mahoney
I don't eat chocolate.  Why you ask?  Because I am sadly allergic to it.  - SHOCK, HORROR, and AWE - I know, I know.  Every once in a while I will tempt fate and have a small morsel of dark chocolate or some vegan chocolate chips - which are AMAZING - but I always manage to pay the ultimate price.  In fact, just a couple of weeks ago after attending a Burlesque class - yes - my girlfriend and I wanted to have a coffee - which I am also allergic to.  Okay, okay so we wanted to get a warm beverage and she suggested Max Brenner.  Oh sure!  Why the hell not?  I just took a burlesque class.  I was feeling cheeky.  Why not throw caution and allergies to the wind and have a dark chocolate hot chocolate?  B-A-D idea my friends.  Bad idea.  I paid the price for not one, but TWO weeks.  Sad.

Oh!  So that rant brings me to my baking triumph.  I wanted to make myself a treat.  While I am completely obsessed with the Trader Joes' Vanilla O's - my newest guilty pleasure - I thought perhaps it was time to make something that I can eat.  So why  not some oatmeal cookies?

Why not?  Because every time I make oatmeal cookies they are quelle tragique.  They look bad.  They taste bad.  The texture is funny. And well, I just plain gave up on them. But last week I wanted them and why the heck shouldn't have them?  So I look at Martha and I have to have this and that craziness so I think I want down home old style oatmeal cookies: Better Homes and Gardens.  BAM!


These cookies were awful! They were like, as my Italian grandmother would say, strunz.  They were CRAZY sweet - which is one of the reasons I dislike making oatmeal cookies, and they were teeny tiny.  I was demoralized, not to mention the fact that I had a MILLION of these damn cookies that I couldn't serve or give away cause they were craptastic.  What to do? What to do?


So the following morning I e-mail my high school bff - hardcore straight edge partner in crime - Jake.  He lives in Chicago and has recently become quite a culinary god. Jake, I say, I need a good oatmeal cookie recipe.  I am dying over here.  I just can't seem to get one that I like.  So he sends me one with butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and walnuts and I think, wha?  I just want an unsweet, spicy, straight ahead oatmeal raisin cookie.  Jake assured me this recipe was where it was at so I trusted him.  
Ah, look how cute we were going off to Junior prom.  I am the one in the Jackie O. Inspired ensemble and Jake is in the center.  Those were the days...
That was a wise choice because I made them last night and I substituted all the chips for raisins and added a teaspoon of cinnamon, at Jake's suggestion, and I have to say they looked great.  I was worried they were going to be too sweet because the recipe called for 2 cups of sugar, but miraculously they weren't. The texture was doughy and crunchy.  The perfect bite every time!


Delicious Oatmeal Cookies

































I am super excited because now that I have a oatmeal cookie base and now I can experiment with the spice factor and come up with a really fantasmigorical oatmeal cookie!


So thank you Jake.  Thank you for breaking my Oatmeal Cookie Curse.

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