April 18, 2020
Makes about 30 cookies
I don't know about the rest of you, but lately, I have been cooking, baking and eating like my life depends on it. Strange and scary times we are living in. When the world around me feels so out of control and full of uncertainty, my love of food and feeding those around me helps me make sense of things. Our favorite local Italian restaurant Bar Del Corso (please eat here if you haven't already) has been putting together lunches for a hospital here in Seattle for the past few weeks. I offered to help, and now I'm baking cookies weekly for the hospital staff. This is my most recent cookie recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who tweaked it from the original oatmeal cookie recipe on the Quaker Oats container. When I was thinking about this cookie, a little voice in my head said "Marshmallow Laura! Please put marshmallows in these cookies. Oh, and also, please add a fleck or two of Maldon on them right when they come out of the oven?" SO here you have it. Marshmallow oatmeal raisin cookies; sweet, salty, chewy, toasted melty marshmallow'y goodness. These cookies benefit from sitting in the fridge overnight. If you absolutely MUST bake them right away just know they will be thinner and spread out more.
Ingredients:
1 cup (230 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cup (250 grams) light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
1 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 C (190 grams) AP flour
1 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t kosher salt
3 C (240 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 C (240 grams) raisins
about 1/2 bag regular or mini marshmallows (I used mini)
Maldon salt for topping, optional
Method:
Preheat oven to 350° F and line cookie sheets with Silpats or parchment paper.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Scrape the bowl along the way one or two times.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Add this into the butter/sugar mixture and mix on low until incorporated. Stir in the oats and raisins.
At this point, you can either chill the dough overnight in the fridge and then scoop and bake, or scoop all the cookies onto a sheet and chill the whole tray before baking them. You could also bake them right away, but see my note about that. I chilled the dough in the fridge overnight. As I scooped the cookies, I took about 3 mini marshmallows and kind of just shoved them down into the center. You can hold the ball of dough in your hand and make an impression with your finger down the middle of it. I find they bake off better when the marshmallows don't go all the way through to the other side of the dough if that makes any sense. Try to surround the marshmallow completely with cookie dough. You can also just tear off a piece of a regular-sized marshmallow instead, rather than use the minis. That might be easier but the minis are all I had on hand. Oh, and I used this cookie scoop.
The cookies should be two inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Add a few flakes of Maldon immediately while they are still hot. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool. Enjoy the yummy'ness.