[Recipe] Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Cookies (with Raisins and Chocolate Chips) | The Ordinary Magic of Cookies

“Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world—had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankies for a nap.”
— Robert Fulghum

Is there anything better after a long day than coming home to a freshly baked, still-warm-from-the-oven cookie? My boys would emphatically say that no, there is not!

Continuing our tradition of back-to-school cookies, I baked these wholesome oatmeal cookies to welcome home my boys from their first day of school way back in August, which seems like just yesterday, but alas it has been 2 months now since school has been back in session.

My boys are now 9 and 14 years old, and both have started new schools this year—my younger son at the upper elementary school and my older son in (gulp!) high school. Sometimes I can’t believe I am this person, a mom of 2 boys, one who is now in high school and taller than I am, standing just shy of 6 feet tall, and who affectionately calls me “Shorty” in his deep, suddenly man-like voice. (At just shy of 5’9” myself, I’d like to state for the record that no one before has ever called me “Shorty.”)

I have fuzzy memories of being that age myself, dealing with all the “newness” that comes with starting high school while adjusting to all the changes that come with just growing up—it can be a lot. After a long day of navigating all the new things that come with the first days (and weeks!) of school—new teachers, new routines, new classrooms, new faces—I remember that feeling of arriving home, tired and hungry and a little overwhelmed, finding comfort in the familiar smells and sounds of my mom’s kitchen, solace in a warm hug, and sustenance in a cookie (or whatever I could quickly grab from the fridge or pantry). I’d plop down at the kitchen table, and in between bites of an apple or a cookie (or, if it were a particularly rough day, my favorite packaged Tastykake treat), I’d unload all of my teenage angst onto my mom, feeling a sense of relief that I was home again.

Now that I’m the mom, most days I’m lucky enough to be home when my boys come home from school. Not long after 3 o’clock each afternoon, they burst through the door and toss their backpacks aside. They might share one or two quick highlights of their day with me before they inevitably ask, “What can I have for a snack?”

Not every day calls for cookies, of course, but if ever there were a day that demanded a reassuring hug in the form of a warm, homemade cookie, it’s the first day of school. The boys’ tired eyes light up as they spy the cookies on the kitchen counter and inhale the comforting scent of fresh-from-the-oven cookies. We gather around the counter and each of us grabs a still-warm cookie from the cooling rack. In between bites of cookies and gulps of milk, they tell me bits and pieces about their days: what their new teachers are like, whom they ate lunch with, what so-and-so said on the bus, the latest melodrama at the high school. Sometimes I relate my experiences from my own school days, but mostly I just listen and take it all in, savoring the moment, letting the cookies work their magic.

I first developed this recipe for a more-healthful oatmeal cookie several summers ago for a lemonade stand/bake sale that I helped my entrepreneurial older son organize when he was 8 years old. Because my kindhearted boy chose to donate the proceeds to the American Heart Association, an organization near and dear to our family, I thought the bake sale needed a less sugary, more heart-healthy option. Surprisingly, these cookies were the sleeper hit of the bake sale, but for reasons unknown I had forgotten about them until this past spring, when I was looking for an easy-to-make, more-healthful cookie recipe to teach in my middle-school cooking classes. I tweaked the recipe a little more and tested them close to a dozen times to arrive at their current iteration, and not only have they become the reigning favorite cookies in our house, they were also a big hit in my cooking classes. The students’ only complaint? That we didn’t make more of them!

I don’t give a health makeover to every cookie I make (case in point: my Christmas cookies), but when I do, I try to make them a little bit better for you without compromising taste; the wholesome ingredients should add to, rather than detract from, their deliciousness. I think I accomplished just that with these cookies: They’re sweet but not too sweet, with a hearty texture and slightly nutty flavor from the oats and whole-wheat flour, and a rich, buttery flavor from my favorite olive oil. (It’s also worth noting that using heart-healthy olive oil instead of butter not only makes them a little better for you, but you also don’t have to drag out a stand mixer or electric beaters to cream butter and sugar together, and sometimes that makes my inner lazy mom-self very happy. This freedom from kitchen power tools also makes these cookies a very kid-friendly baking project.) They’re crisp at the edges, yet soft and chewy inside, as any good oatmeal cookie should be. And the addictively good combination of sweet, chewy raisins and gooey, bittersweet chocolate with a faint hint of cinnamon rounds things out flavor-wise, making it difficult to stop at just one cookie. We all love them: My kids, my husband, my neighbors who were taste-testers, the bake-sale customers, and my cooking-class students (with the exception of one student who abhors raisins, a fatal “flaw” that is easily remedied if you, too, are a raisin-hater; see the recipe notes below).

Homemade cookies, in my humble mom opinion, are a celebratory must on the first day of school, a comforting, familiar treat that’s good for the soul, at least in our house. If it were up to my boys, we’d have cookies after school every day, but I imagine they’d eventually lose their specialness, their magic, if they became a daily treat. That being said, every once in a while, on an ordinary day, cookies are called for at 3 o’clock to help boost sluggish spirits. And you can feel good about feeding these oatmeal cookies to your kids more often than might seem prudent: Not to put a health halo on them, but with their wholesome, nutritious ingredients and less sugar than most cookies, they’re probably more healthful than the average packaged granola bar, and certainly more healthful than the beloved Tastykake treats of my youth.

These cookies are the perfect (occasional) afternoon snack: nourishing and energizing yet still a treat. As they bake, your house will smell heavenly, and they’ll wrap you in their warm, reassuring scent, as if to say, “It will all be alright.” A cold glass of milk, and a nap afterward, are both optional, but highly recommended.

Whole-Wheat Oatmeal Cookies (with Raisins and Chocolate Chips)

 

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These cookies are easy enough to mix together in mere minutes, packed with enough wholesome ingredients to be delightfully healthful, and delicious enough to be a pretty perfect oatmeal cookie. With whole-wheat flour, olive oil, and less sugar than most cookies, it’s a better-for-you cookie that makes a crave-worthy after-school snack. And, some might argue, it is just healthful enough for breakfast (when rounded out with a bowl of yogurt or a glass of milk for added protein). With oats and dried fruit, it’s basically granola in a portable cookie form, like those “breakfast cookies” that are all the rage these days on the ‘gram.

VEGETARIAN, DAIRY-FREE

Yield: Approximately 24 cookies.

Author: Wholesome Family Kitchen

Ingredients

• • 1 cup packed light brown sugar (or less, if you prefer; see notes below *)
• • ½ cup (4 oz.) unsweetened applesauce
• • ¼ cup light-tasting extra-virgin olive oil **
• • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• • 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• • ½ cup raisins
• 
  
• • 1½ cups white whole-wheat flour ***
• • 1 teaspoon baking soda
• • ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
• • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• • 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• • ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips ****

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F and line 2 large rimmed sheet pans with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, applesauce, olive oil, vanilla, and egg until smooth and well combined. Stir in the raisins.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Whisk in the oats, then stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring with a rubber spatula until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
5. Using a spoon or—my preference—a cookie scoop, scoop the dough into mounds about 2 tablespoons each and place them on the parchment-lined sheet pans, leaving some space between the cookies to allow for some spreading.
6. Bake the cookies one pan at a time on the middle rack of the oven until they’re set yet still slightly soft in the centers and just starting to brown around the edges, about 10 to 14 minutes. (Rotate the pan halfway through the baking time to help ensure even baking.)
7. Remove the pan from the oven, and let the cookies cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before using a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely (or cool just enough for eating). The cookies are at their best the day they’re made, especially still warm from the oven. But stored in an airtight container at room temperature, they’ll remain fresh for about 3 to 4 days (although they will soften and lose some of their crispness at the edges). For longer storage, or to help prolong their freshness, I recommend storing leftover cookies in the freezer. See notes below for tips on freezing and reheating.

Notes

* I’ve tested these cookies with varying amounts of sugar to determine the least amount of sugar I could add without compromising taste or texture. With the full cup of (packed) brown sugar, these cookies are at their best: soft and chewy with crisp edges, a definite treat! (They also keep fresher longer.) However, if you want to further reduce the sugar in these cookies to perhaps justify serving them as a “breakfast cookie” or in lieu of, say, a granola bar, or you just like your cookies less sweet, I’ve found that you can safely reduce the sugar to ¾ cup packed brown sugar. The reduced-sugar cookies are still delicious, although they do have more of a cake-y texture inside—still appealing, but less like a traditional oatmeal cookie. They also don’t keep quite as long as the cookies made with the full cup of sugar, but if this is a concern, I’d recommend storing the cookies in the freezer and thawing and reheating them as needed. (See instructions below.)

** I use olive oil in a lot of my baked goods because I really like the depth of flavor it brings, and it’s good for you too! (My favorite olive oil to use for baking is California Olive Ranch Mild and Buttery Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, as it’s relatively mild-tasting and lends a buttery flavor without any actual butter.) You can certainly use canola oil or another neutral-flavored oil instead of olive oil in this recipe, if you prefer.

*** If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you probably know that white whole-wheat flour is my favorite flour to use when baking more-nutritious baked goods. King Arthur Flour makes a white whole-wheat flour that is pretty widely available these days. However, if you have trouble finding it, you can substitute traditional whole-wheat flour or all-purpose flour (or a combination of the two) and get similar results.

**** When it comes to chocolate, I personally believe that the darker the chocolate, the better the flavor (and the better for you too: darker, more bittersweet varieties of chocolate have less sugar and more antioxidants than semi-sweet and milk chocolate varieties). For these cookies, I prefer bittersweet chocolate chips with 60 to 70% cacao, but feel free to use your favorite chocolate chips (or your favorite bar of chocolate, chopped into chip-sized pieces) in this recipe.

GET CREATIVE:
You can use this basic recipe as a vehicle for your favorite cookie add-ins (to equal about 1 cup total):

• Swap out the raisins for other dried fruit (e.g., dried cranberries or dried cherries).
• Add different spices or flavorings (e.g., ginger, nutmeg, finely grated orange zest).
• Swap out the chocolate chips for nuts (e.g., chopped walnuts or almonds).
• Leave out the raisins and use all chocolate chips (my personal favorite!).

TO FREEZE AND REHEAT:
Allow the cookies to cool completely at room temperature, then place them in a resealable plastic freezer bag and store in the freezer. When a cookie craving strikes, remove a frozen cookie from the bag and reheat it in the microwave, a toaster oven, or a regular oven. Usually I just pop the frozen cookie onto a microwave-safe plate and microwave it on high power for 25 to 30 seconds. (Keep in mind though that my microwave is quite old and has less power than most, so your microwave time might vary.) If I also want to bring back the cookie’s crispy edges, I’ll microwave the frozen cookie for about 20 seconds first, then pop it in my toaster oven for about a minute on the lowest setting (watching carefully): Nearly as good as freshly baked!

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