Homemade Oatmeal Cookies

I never knew how easy oatmeal cookies are to make.  I had never tried to make them before but for some reason believed that the inclusion of oatmeal would cause cookies to require some extra level of effort, like pre-cooking the oatmeal.  But not at all, they are basically chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal instead of the chocolate chips.  Of course, I keep finding out that most of the food I enjoy isn't nearly as hard to make as I expected.  Last time I saw my Dad he hinted that he'd love some Oatmeal Cookies, and since I grabbed 2 packages of oatmeal in sale the other day and I'm always up for making something new, I tracked down a fantastic sounding oatmeal cookie recipe to try.
 I kept to the recipe for the most part, leaving out the chocolate chips. It called for brown sugar in the recipe, and since dark brown sugar always adds extra flavor to recipes (Hello Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies...amazing) I decided to use a combination of light and dark brown sugars.

I creamed 2 sticks of butter and the sugars together with my mixer, then added the eggs and vanilla extract.

Next I gradually added in the flour mixture, just like with chocolate chip cookies.

Now, of the 2 packages of Oatmeal because I got, one is quick-cooking kind and the other is a regular oatmeal.  The poster of the original recipe mentioned in the comments that the quick-cooking type was used in her recipe, but I was curious about the difference and ended up looking it up and finding a post comparing Regular vs Quick Cooking Oatmeal for Baking.  Apparently the only difference is that the quick cooking variety is chopped into smaller pieces, thus making it cook faster.  But for the most part they are interchangeable in recipes, with regular oatmeal giving a chunkier cookie.  All you need to do to change regular into quick cooking is to use a food processor.  It's that easy.  I went with the quick cooking type for this recipe, but will try the regular ones next time I bake these to see the difference.

I used the mixer for a few seconds to blend in the oats, then the batter was ready to get into cookie form.  It was super chunky.

I scooped them onto parchment-lined cookie sheets and got them in the oven.  They were ready after 11 minutes and I let them cool on the tray before putting them away.

 

Chewy, delicious...yum!  I'm not always a huge fan of oatmeal cookies but these are dangerously good and so chewy. I need to get some of these out of my house before I eat too many...I can't wait to share these things!  I'll have to try an oatmeal raisin with regular oatmeal next time around, because these will be re-appearing for sure.

Homemade Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups quick cooking oats

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until fully combined. In a small bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Gradually pour the flour mixture into the batter and mix until fully combined. Add oats and mix until combined. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly browned.