Old Fashioned Recipe for Favorite Oatmeal Cookies

I have been making these cookies for over 20 years, and they are by far my favorite recipe, plus always a favorite with anyone who tastes them…kids and grownups alike.

Two weeks ago I cooked up a batch for Emma to take to her first high school swim meet, knowing they’d have a lot of time on the bus going to and from the meet. She told me that night I’d better plan on baking up a batch for every swim meet because the cookies were such a hit. Since they’re not super sweet and they do have oatmeal in them, I think they are as healthy a snack as a granola bar, at least! Without all the added chemicals of a storebought granola bar.

This might not be one of the old fashioned recipes you’d find in an old cookbook since I made it up, but it certainly could be, because it’s made up of all wholesome, normal ingredients, just like an old fashioned recipe. The recipe follows…

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 c sugar
• 1 c packed brown sugar
• 1/2 c softened butter
• 1/2 c lard or shortening
• 2 eggs
• 3 c flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 c old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together the sugars, butter and lard/shortening. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well again. Stir in the oats. Using two hands, shape the cookies into uniformly sized balls about 1 1/4 inches in diameter. The actual size is really up to you. I like smaller cookies, but you can make these bigger. As long as they are all the same size! Put them on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 to 3 inches apart. Use the palm of your hand, or the bottom of a drinking glass, to flatten them slightly. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes, maybe a little longer if you made bigger cookies. I cook them for shorter time because I like them kind of chewy. If you want your cookies a little crispier, keep them in the oven a minute or two longer. Remove from oven and immediately put on a rack to cool.

They keep for almost a week in my cookie jar, then they get stale. But the only time I have stale cookies is when everyone else is gone, because otherwise these old fashioned oatmeal cookies are gone in a couple of days!

Try these cookies, and I’m pretty sure you’ll count them among your favorite old fashioned recipes…even if you won’t find them in an old cookbook. 🙂