Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Military Life:  Okay, so I'm swimming in oatmeal right now, I have about 3 giant containers of oatmeal currently in my pantry and there is no possible way me and my husband can finish it all before their expiration date.  Now I didn't go to the store and purposely buy an over abundance of oatmeal on my own, I acquired most of it from friends PCSing (Permanent change of Station).  We like our acronyms in the military.

In the military we normally move about every 3 to 4 years. You'll stay at one base for a period of time until you receive orders for another base somewhere around the world.  So usually your neighbors and friends around you are constantly moving in or moving out and that means people have to get rid of persihbles they cannot pack with them, because honestly you wont see your house hold goods for about 2 months while moving to another base. 

One of my neighbors just packed her goods for Germany (I'm jealous!) and had a ton of left over baking goods and donated them to me.  So now its up to me to put all this oatmeal to good use and why not make something that is nostalgic to childhood and bake some delicious chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. I love my cookies with tons of oatmeal and raisins in every bite, some people are raisin haters, but not I, please give me a cookie loaded with sweet raisins. 

 I made these cookies with a limited amount of sugar (no white sugar either) tons of raisins and added some cinnamon and ginger. These cookies baked up nice and plump with the raisins giving the cookie some added sweetness, these go perfect with a giant glass of milk. More oatmeal goodies to come, can't wait to share another oatmeal cookie version with you soon, a little hint theres going to be coconut : )

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe from Oishii Treats

Yields: 30-34 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup butter (12 tablespoons), at room temp
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rasins


Directions

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the oatmeal, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger and set aside.
- In a electric mixer beat your butter and brown sugar together until fluffy, scraping the side of the bowl when needed, about 3 minutes. Add in your eggs one at a time until fully incorporated and then your vanilla extract.
- On low speed slowly add in your dry ingredients, scrapping down the side of the bowl to get all the flour combined, once done switch to medium/high speed and mix the dough until all ingredients are combined.  Add in the raisins and mix for 30 seconds.
- Using a spoon roll about a 1inch ball of dough and slightly flatten with the palm of your hand, place the on the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from one another, I could fit about 9 on my cookie sheet.

- Bake for 13-14 minutes, remove from oven and let sit on the cookie sheet for 4 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.