Teen Cuisine and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
What’s cooking? Teen Cuisine by Matthew Locricchio! A great new cookbook for teens and beginners who want to learn how to make delicious gourmet meals. The step-by-step recipes are easy to understand and captured in living color by renowned photographer James Peterson.
A successful cookie recipe is the perfect excuse to get the kids into the kitchen with you and discover the fun of baking! Who knows, it might lead to sparking a real interest in learning how to cook.
OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
Oh, the oatmeal cookie. What an inspired creation, a portable bite of bliss. There are very few things that can match the irresistible aroma of cookies baking. And somehow, no matter where you are, this aroma will find you. Homemade is always worth the effort – especially with cookies. I recommend that you bake these cookies one baking sheet at a time to make sure they cook evenly.
(Makes about three dozen cookies)
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
1¼ cups raw (turbinado) sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature plus ½ teaspoon for greasing
¼ cup whole milk
2 tablespoons molasses
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¾ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup raisins
On your mark
Preheat the oven to 350°F with an oven rack in the middle slot of the oven.
Using a piece of wax paper, lightly grease two 10 ½ by 15 ½-inch cookie sheets with ½ teaspoon butter. Set aside.
Get set
Combine the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, oats, raw sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk until well mixed.
In a separate bowl, combine the butter, milk, molasses, egg, and vanilla.
Beat with an electric hand-mixer at medium speed until the mixture is smooth. Add to the dry ingredients. Toss all of the ingredients together to moisten.
Mix in the nuts and raisins.
Cook!
Scoop up about a tablespoon of dough and drop onto the greased cookie sheet. Repeat until you have 12 cookies about 2 inches apart.
Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack of the oven for 18 minutes, or until the edges are crisp and start to color. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare and bake the next tray. Continue until all the cookies are baked.
Once the cookies have cooled for 10 minutes, use a spatula to lift them off the cookie sheet and place them on a rack to cool completely.
Matthew Locricchio, author of Teen Cuisine, was born into a restaurant and catering family and has worked in the food industry most of his life. Included in his resume as a professional cook are stints at the well-known Gandy Dancer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the West Coast Stock Exchange’s private club in San Francisco, and the legendary Barbary Coast restaurant. Matthew has taught culinary classes and given cooking demonstrations at culinary schools throughout the country as well as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. For more information please visit Cookbooks and Kids.
Editor’s Note: Share your thoughts and comments below, and you may win a copy of Teen Cuisine.
