My Favorite O’Hydrates . . .

November 13, 2009

. . . are carbohydrates. However, I am off them for a while. Operating on the principle that someone else’s diet has all the fascination of a – hmm, there are really a lot of things that are not the least bit fascinating and some that can make me go screaming out of the room – so I will not mention the word d**t again.

Instead, I am offering up The Best Cookie You Have Ever Eaten.

I am not kidding.

Anytime I make these everyone says, “this is the best cookie I have ever eaten.”

Here goes:
3/4 cup shortening – I use Crisco, NOT butter or margarine
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
3 cups regular, long-cooking rolled oats
1 cup chocolate chunks – chopped up Easter bunnies work well
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cherries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the shortening and sugars. When well blended, add the egg. Mix in the egg, then add the water and vanilla. Add the salt, soda and flour all together and mix. Add one cup of oats – mix. Add the chocolate chunks – mix. Add the second cup of oats – mix. Add the white chocolate chips – mix. Add the third cup of oats – mix. Add the dried cherries and mix them in.

I bake them on heavy baking pans lined with parchment paper.

I roll the cookies into big balls with my hands. The unbaked cookies are probably bigger than a golf ball, but smaller than a tennis ball.

Place them a couple of inches apart on the baking pan and bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Cool on the pan for a few minutes then place on a cooling rack.

I don’t have a problem giving out the recipe. It is based on the original Quaker Oats recipe that they have now changed.

Often, after someone tastes these cookies and says these are the best, etc., they ask for the recipe. Occasionally, after I give out the recipe the recipient will say, “Oh, do you think these will taste the same if I,” pick one:
a. don’t use shortening
b. cut back on the sugar
c. make them smaller

No! They will not taste the same and, in my opinion, they will not be The Best Cookie You Have Ever Eaten. But go – improvise away. These cookies, however, really are the best.