Crisp Oatmeal Cookie

The KAF has four basic oatmeal cookies recipes: Crunchy, Chewy, Crisp, and Soft. I'm not going to make all four recipes, and I already did Crunchy and Chewy for chocolate chip. I do not normally consider myself a fan of oatmeal cookies. After a week of peanut butter cookies that I couldn't keep my hands off of, I wanted to bake some cookies I would be able to resist. But I was not successful. I'll have to get some raisins for the next batch, hopefully that will make the Soft Oatmeal Cookies less desirable.

I made these cookies without raisins (which were optional) and with chopped pecans. They are full of warm spices like ground cloves and cinnamon and the house smells like a holiday party. They are indeed crispy and melt in your mouth. Even Phoebe has already eaten two (and she never finishes a whole cookie). Phoebe factor of 8 since she was very involved in this batch, even rolling the balls for the cookie sheets. She's usually checked out by that point. Wyatt also banged pots and pans on the floor to keep us company.

Here's the recipe:

The Essential Crisp Oatmeal Cookie

6 tablespoons vegetable shortening

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg (we used one from our chickens!)

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups rolled oats

1 & 1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) (optional)

(the recipe also suggests 1 cup raisins, optional, but we didn't have any)

• Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together shortening, butter, sugars, egg, water, extracts, spices, salt and baking soda. Stir in the oats, then the flour. Add the raisins and nuts last, and stir to combine.
• Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes, or until they're a light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.