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Oatmeal "Orange Molasses" Raisin Cookies
Can you relate? :)
And now that their vacation has begun, I'm already realizing that with the kids home, writing and posting favorite recipes will probably come few and far between. This simple recipe was a perfect choice to start the kids' summer off with and to also share with visiting family in for the festivities. It may look like a simple Oatmeal Raisin Cookie..
but my play with ingredients gives it a complex flavor and texture.
You may have read my holiday cookie post a few years ago called the "Italian Filled Cookie". This cookie is my families version of the traditional Sicilian cookie called a Cucidati. It is so delicious and filled with yummy goodness in the form of chocolate, apple butter and rum soaked raisins. If you have never poached pears or soaked fruit.. you really need to try it. I don't normally enjoy raisins straight from the box, dry and shriveled, they, like prunes, really only remind me of growing old and "not so gracefully". :) So if I can help it.. smooth, plump and hydrate is my adage!
With this Oatmeal recipe I plump and hydrate the raisins. I was intending on using Rum or Marsala. I love those flavors together, they are a match made in heaven. But with none on hand I decided to improvise with what I did have. I had an assortment of juices.. apple, orange, pear.. but I also needed to have something that would intensify the flavor as the liquid and the raisins simmered. Molasses and raisins.. and with that, orange juice for the liquid became the perfect choice!
I wish I could bottle my husbands enthusiasm.. he is so kind and wonderful and gave these cookies the highest rating he has given any of my cookies before! I thought they were pretty good too, not so overpowering or bitter with molasses, but yet in my opinion not to sweet either. I say in my opinion, because my mom did say they were a little too sweet for her, but normally she adds very little sugar to anything. :)
As far as a recipe goes.. I took a generic oatmeal cookie recipe from one of my favorite wedding gift cookbooks and added my improv on ingredients from there. Chocolate pieces, coconut and walnuts were also added to my orange molasses soaked raisin oatmeal cookie batter. :) For a more intense orange flavor, I would add some zest of an orange. It all melded together so wonderfully!
You can either soak your raisins and molasses in a jar for 1 day or over night, or you can speed up the process by simmering them on low in the orange juice and molasses till they are plump. I used 2 cups of orange juice to a 1/4 cup of molasses. When they were done I drained them in a sieve before I added them to the cookie batter.
Buon Appetito!
Laurie
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