Alton Brown's Oaty Oatmeal Cookies

Hi all,

I know that it's been a while: Christmas was crazy! I've been wanting to share this recipe with you for a while.

See, I saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown makes oatmeal cookies with absolutely NO wheat flour. The process looked easy enough (well, as easy as an AB recipe gets), and the results pretty delicious, so I gave it a shot.

These cookies are VERY different from your standard oatmeals. The flavor is much nuttier and the cookies a lot looser. This is mostly because oats do not produce gluten, or perhaps very little gluten. That makes these cookies great if you have Coeliac disease, also known as gluten intolerance. Even if you don't, these cookies provide a welcome change (after tweaking the recipe a little bit).

We need to start out by measuring 16 ounces of Old Fashioned oats on a scale. Notice that mine comes from the 60's, like most of my advanced kitchen gadgetry (i.e. the stand mixer... pictures to come).

Put all those oats on a baking sheet (or two) and toast them in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes, stirring once or twice.

In the mean time, we need to get everything else out.

Butter, cinnamon, brown sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder, vanila, salt, an egg, and raisins and whiskey.

First, the raisins. In a small bowl, measure out 2 oz of raisins, and then soak them in about two or three tablespoons of whiskey until you're ready for them.

Yum. Whiskey. I saw this on the episode of Good Eats, but it wasn't included in the recipe on the Food Network website. AB also used rum, but I had whiskey around.

By now, the oats are done, so take them out of the oven and let them cool for a little bit.

Using your scale, divide the oats in half. Half will become our flour, and half will be the whole oats in the cookies.

So, take one half and put it in the food processor (I needed to do three batches to do the full 8 oz, so use your judgement here).

Set it up to one of the higher settings (I used 8 or 9), and let it go for three minutes or so, until the oats become the consistency of flour.

See, almost indistinguishable from your friendly wheat flour. I think I let some batches go for even longer, for a finer texture.

Anyway, in a big mixing bowl, we combine our dry ingredients: oat flour, cinnamon, baking soda. I used more cinnamon than in the original recipe (around 4 tsps) because I really like that flavor, but if you don't, add less. It's also 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, I believe, although the recipe only calls for 1.

So, mix that up, and break out your stand mixer for the wet ingredients: butter, sugar, egg, vanilla.

Here, I'm creaming the butter and white sugar. This stand mixer is crazy, as you can tell by the motion blur. If you don't hold it, it spins around like wild and sends butter all over the kitchen. It's actually pretty awesome.

Once that's creamed, add the brown sugar.

It's tough to see, but the blur has changed color and the consistency is much smoother. Then add in your egg and vanilla.

Okay, all done with that mess. Now, on the lowest setting, add in your dry ingredients slowly. I typically do three batches.

Since this stand mixer is nuts, I shut it down, pour in the flour, then turn it on.

When the dry ingredients are all added, don't be surprised that the mixture is still very wet. Like this.

Remember, OATS DO NOT MAKE GLUTEN, and they absorb moisture differently from wheat flour, so expect it to look different here.
Then add in your whiskey soaked raisins, with whiskey, and 2 oz chocolate chips.

Don't forget the other 8 oz of oats too! Mix those by hand, a stand mixer will just start to break it all up.

Then AB and I differ about what's better. He says to make 1 1/2 oz balls, with a result like this:

Giant cookies, delicious, but dry. If you want these monsters, bake for a very short time to keep the moisture inside. If you're worried about cooking the egg, then use my method: much small, about 3/4 oz cookies.

These were moist, had a decent crumb, and I could taste everything in them. I definitely prefer these.

They were a big hit at the Math potluck, so I hope you enjoy them too!

Here's the original link to Alton Brown's recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/the-oatiest-oatmeal-cookies-ever-recipe/index.html

Don't forget my changes though:
1 tbsp cinnamon instead of 1
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 oz raisins soaked in 2-3 tbsp whiskey
2 oz chocolate chips

In the procedure, don't forget to make smaller cookies and bake them for 8-10 minutes instead of 12-14, it will really help keep your cookies moist.

P.S. I got a camera for Christmas! Expect better pictures soon!