Oatmeal Crispies

After working all afternoon at the Denton Starbucks one Sunday, I came home to this –a freshly made batch of oatmeal cookies, made with love by Mom.

They were also made with Crisco, not butter, which is why these cookies have that unmistakable crunch on the outside, with a soft middle and a crackle across the top. Before I could get my sunglasses off the top of my head, I ate three. One after the other. These were my favorite cookies growing up, yet I forgot how good they were. I also forgot about the Crisco.

I was just as surprised as you are. I love butter and I use butter in nearly everything that I bake. But with butter, this recipe just doesn’t work as well. To test this theory, Mom made a butter-only batch, but the cookies tasted less oatmealy than the others, and were flatter, too. There wasn’t that crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside thing going on at all.

Crispy often means Crisco. Flaky piecrusts, too, depend on the white stuff in the familiar blue can.

We don’t have Crisco in Paris, and I usually have a small can on hand for pie crusts (which I usually make with a half butter/half Crisco mixture), but I’m packing another one this time just so I can make these cookies. Because as Mom likes to remind me, “It’s oatmeal! It’s good for you!”

Oatmeal Crispies

Makes 5 dozen

1 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 cups quick cooking oats

Preheat oven to 350 F.

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream shortening and sugars until fluffy.

2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

3. Whisk or sift flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl, and add to the mixture.

4. Finally, add the oatmeal and mix just until it’s incorporated.

5. Spoon on cookie sheet and cook for ten minutes, or until the cookies just begin to brown on the edges.