This fantastic recipe was graciously given to me by my wonderful chemistry teacher. One day she brought them for class and everyone loved them. As a testament to their goodness: I really hate oatmeal cookies, but I think these are just great. I have given these cookies to people who dislike oatmeal cookies and not only did they like the cookies, but they asked for more! I actually don’t recall anyone ever saying they disliked them. They are definitely not ordinary oatmeal cookies. I heartily encourage you to try them.

Ready

• 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups unsifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (Cassia cinnamon if you have it)
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 cups oats, uncooked (I use 1 ½ cups regular oatmeal and 1 ½ cups instant oats)
• 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Set

• Get out stuff to mix with and stuff to mix in.
• You’ll need cookie sheets too.

Go

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar and brown sugar until creamy and lightened in color (about 4 minutes).
3. Add vanilla and egg, mix until incorporated.
4. Stir flour with baking soda, salt and spices in separate bowl; add to creamed mixture, mixing well.
5. Stir in oats.
6. Fold in chocolate chips.
7. Drop by rounded tablespoons on to ungreased cookie sheets.
8. Bake 8 to 9 minutes (my oven takes a couple minutes longer)
9. Cool on cookie sheet 1 minute before removing.

What you should know

The reason the recipe is called “Cassia cookies” is because of the the type of cinnamon (Appropriately, my chem teacher’s name is also Cassia). Cassia cinnamon, or Vietnamese cinnamon, is a particular type of cinnamon that is slightly sweet and has a great bite. It lends an amazing complexity to the cookies. If you have it, use it. If you don’t, you might consider getting some. It is great stuff. (Your cookies will be great either way, so don’t worry.)

Some of the people who have tried these cookies said they would prefer them with raisins. So if you are a raisin person, go ahead and substitute the chocolate for a desired amount of raisins. It will be a great oatmeal raisin cookie!