Oatmeal Cookies

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
½ cup (1 stick) margarine, softened to room temperature (see note below)
1 cup brown sugar, packed down
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 scant tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
½ cup chopped walnuts (about 12 whole walnuts, optional)
3 cups oatmeal

1. Heat oven to 350◦.
2. In large bowl, cream butter, margarine, and white and brown sugar.
3. Beat eggs.
4. Add eggs and vanilla to mixture and beat well.
5. Add flour, salt, and baking soda, sifted together.
6. Add chopped nuts.
7. Add oatmeal.
8. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. Drops should be about walnut size and spaced apart. Do not press flat. (Actually I make them bigger than that.)
9. Bake about 9–10 minutes, until golden brown and center is firm.
10. Remove to cooling rack.

You can add raisins, chocolate or butterscotch bits, other kinds of nuts, etc., if desired.

Yield: ~100 (unless you make them bigger). These cookies freeze well.

Notes

This is the same traditional recipe that my mother used and that I have been using since I was a young girl. The secret is to have your shortening (butter) at room temperature, not too soft, and to drop the cookies in rounded lumps onto the sheet and never press them down. That way you get firm, rounded edges that bake evenly and do not come out crisp and burnt. I usually set the shortening out in a bowl the night before, and it is just right when it comes to baking time.

These days, though, watch out for watery margarine. They truly don’t make it like they used to. Watery margarine makes the cookies collapse and they don’t bake right. Fleischmann’s has been pretty good. If in doubt, skip the margarine and use two sticks of butter. I only used the margarine to cut down on the fat a little.

I buy regular old fashioned oats, put some in a bowl, cover with water. The water is a few millimeters above the oats. Microwave for 90 seconds. Mix, let it sit for two minutes. Voila! Ready to be eaten. I add some maple syrup after cooking, I don’t mix it in. Or, I add walnuts and raisins after cooking, which I do mix in. I don’t eat oatmeal more than twice a week. Supposedly, it’s not good if you’re probe to shingles, which I am. I don’t know if that’s really true.

I love oatmeal cookies, especially Archway, they remind me of time I used to spend with my grandmother. My mom used to make good oatmeal cookies when I was little, I’m not sure what recipe she used. I tried once or twice and never loved the ones I made from scratch.

I like brown sugar, apple cubes, and cinnamon. My husband is more adventurous, and sometimes I have fun putting ridiculous combinations into a jar at night so he can have overnight oats in the morning. He has loved blueberries with yoghurt and raspberry syrup, a birthday cake version with sprinkles and jam, and a peanut butter/banana/chocolate powder version. I also have a recipe for what to do with leftover oatmeal:

Leftover Poridge Cake!

Ingredients
½ cup Butter
2 cups White Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2 cups Cooked Porridge
1¼ cup Flour
2½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
2–3 tsp Cinnamon
Optional Additions: Shredded Coconut,
Chopped Nuts, Diced Apple.

Method
Step 1 Preheat oven to 180C/fan
Step 2 Cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and
oatmeal. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and
cinnamon (and any other extras eg. nuts). Add to creamed
mixture and mix well.
Step 3 Pour into greased and floured 6cm x 26cm cake tinTop with either
cream cheese icing, caramel icing or a caramel glaze with
chopped nuts and coconut.. Bake for 35 minutes or until it tests
done.
Step 4 Extra: Top with either cream cheese icing, or a caramel glaze with
chopped nuts and coconut, if desired.
Step 5 Enjoy!

This cake feels so British, very comforting, and satisfyingly moist.

(Source: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/384026/recipe/leftover-porridge-cake)

@longgone I’m going to give that recipe to a friend! She always makes a big batch of oatmeal when she makes it, and often has some leftover.

@JLeslie Nice! It’s a quick and easy recipe, and the beauty is that you can even use oatmeal with raisins, apples, or berries in it. Just in case, maybe remind her that the recipe is British and so the flour would not be self-raising. You can still use self-raising flour, but you’d have to leave out the baking powder.

@longgone US recipes are assumed to not be self-rising flour unless specifically stated. I actually rarely see recipes with self-rising flour. I’ll convert the oven temperature and pan size for her.

@JLeslie Oh! Wow, I’m surprised. Thanks for letting me know. I wonder why I even thought that resipes with self-raising flour were a thing.

Pour instant oats into a big bowl
Pour some water into the big bowl
Nuke for 2 minutes.
Add butter, brown sugar, heavy whipping cream.
Eat

I roll a fresh cup of oat groats, add them to 2 cups-ish water to a pan, and boil for ~3–4 minutes, until things get gooey, then add things. Milk, cream, maple, syrup, jam, grated nutmeg, or fresh fruit.

Sometimes, I soak the oats overnight with a bit of yogurt. It starts fermenting and adds some acidity and flavor.

Mine is similar to @Dutchess_III,‘s except I use 1% milk and sometimes raisins.

I like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, hopefully with some walnuts thrown in, and hopefully a little well done (not raw and chewy, like are popular, but more dark on the bottom and crispy).

I do like oatmeal for breakfast, with nuts and fruit, but usually only eat it at hotels from the breakfast buffet. At home, being the only one who would eat it, I use instant packets which are ok but not as good as “real” oatmeal done over a stove top or done in a crock pot.

Here is mine.
Barry good overnight oatmeal.
½ a cup of oatmeal, old fashioned or regular
½ a cup of milk
½ a cup of yogurt any flavor
½ a cup of berries frozen or fresh,
directions: wash hands for 20 seconds.
get a bowl that can hold 2 cups. Then put the ingredients in order they are listed. After you do that, put it in a fridge overnight. Enjoy the next morning!

Alton Brown has a recipe for putting the oats in a crock pot with milk and dried fruit (fruit of your choice) and nuts and seeds if you’re into that, and putting the crock pot on “low” overnight. You wake up and voila, you have a hot breakfast ready. I thought the idea of having the crock pot on when I was sleeping made me nervous, so I did it in the morning for a few hours and it worked out equally well. It was really good. Maybe I’ll do that sometime soon.

I love oatmeal cookies with raisins and oatmeal as a filler for meatloaf but that is it. And I do mean IT.

Sauté ⅓c. steel cut oats in 1Tbsp. salted butter until it has a nutty fragrance. Add 1c. boiling water and a pinch of salt and simmer covered 15 minutes. Rest off heat covered 5 minutes. Serve with maple syrup and/or half and half.