A Generous Table

Oatmeal Biscuit

I am ashamed to admit, quite some time ago I received a request for this recipe from my old housemate, Vicki, and haven’t quite gotten around to adapting it until now! (Sorry Vicki!)

When I was in Ireland and going to school at Ballymaloe, I had a hankering to make American style cookies after class one day, but had no recipes at hand.  Specifically, I wanted to make the oatmeal cookies I grew up making on Saturday afternoons.  Now, the cookies I grew up with used vegetable shortening (unheard of in the British Isles) and I only had butter – salted Kerrygold butter.  The oatmeal I had was Macroom Oats, a toasted and ground oat from the little town of Macroom, Ireland.  The toastiness and small size of the oats I thought would make for a more delicate cookie. So I  just started mixing things in until the dough seemed the right consistency and taste( I am very fond of eating cookie dough – a quirk that really helped me here!)  then baked them off.  I noticed the butter gave them a richer flavor and crisper crumb than shortening.  These are really more a cross between the traditional American cookie and an English biscuit.  My housemates and I polished them off within  minutes of them being out of the oven (Hey, there were 12 of us!)  I made them a few times after that, whenever anyone asked – they are quite easy!

Not long ago, another of my old housemates, Alex, emailed me and told me she made my cookies.  This made me think I had actually emailed the recipe to Vicki, but Alex set me straight!  So, since it was cool tonight, I thought I should work on getting the measurements down and produce a real recipe!

Oatmeal Biscuits

• 1 cup / 8oz / 225g  butter, softened
• 1 cup / 7.5 oz / 200g brown sugar
• 1/2 cup / 3 oz / 80g granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups  / 6.75oz / 300g all purpose flour (plain flour)
• 3 cups  / 10 1/2 oz / 300g quick cooking oats*
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• (1/2 tsp salt – if using unsalted butter)

Preheat oven to 350F/ 175C.  Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.  Stir in vanilla and egg; mix well.  Add dry ingredients to bowl and mix until just combined.  Place walnut sized balls of dough about 1 1/2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake 8-10 minutes, until lightly gold and slightly puffy.  Let cool on baking sheet a few minutes, then remove to cooling rack.  Makes about 3 dozen.  These will keep a week in an airtight container, or 3 months frozen.  Enjoy!

*Macroom, or Bob’s Red Mill’s Scottish Oatmeal (here in the States) – if you can find them.  Standard US quick cooking oats are what I had and they worked, they just weren’t as delicate textured or as toasty flavored as the others would be!