I’ve been baking cookies over and over and over again recently.  See??

Batch four

Batch five.

Goodness knows I wish they tasted better than they looked. Texture-wise I mean. These oatmeal raisins are supposed to be chewy! Batch four is cake-like and batch five falls apart when you try to pick them up. Notice they’re still sitting in the oven? I can’t even plate the dang things.

Aside from making my pants too tight, it’s also taught me a thing or two about baking cookies.

And I know this is probably common knowledge to bakers everywhere but it’s new to me! Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

• Oil is not a substitute for good ol’ fashioned buttah! Oil does not hold a cookie together like butter. Oil crumbles. It makes a cookie fall apart.
• Cayenne is surprisingly good for a cookie with a lot of spice flavors like oatmeal raisins.
• Put more cinnamon than the recipe calls for – when it comes to cinnamon, you can’t overdo it.  Pumpkin pie spice is a good substitute for cinnamon or use it in addition.
• Cardamom goes nicely in oatmeal raisin cookies.
• There are other cookies besides oatmeal raisins.
• Oatmeal raisins go great with coffee.  Even the ones that don’t come out right.
• Molasses adds a bit of chew to a cookie.
• Drier doughs usually yield chewier cookies.  Don’t add more liquids thinking it’ll hold together better.  That’s the butter’s job.