Fuzzy and the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

I’m new to town in this place called Eureka Springs, an Ozark mountain hamlet just south of the Missouri state line.  For the next week and some change, home is the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow, purportedly the only writer’s colony in the country with a test kitchen.  And yes, I’m putting that kitchen to good use, tinkering with recipes for a cookbook that will published by Da Capo Press next fall.

Photo by Kim O'Donnel.

The colony is a short picturesque walk from town, but grocery shopping without a car is a different story. That’s where Fuzzy (“only my Mom calls me David”) White comes in.  An aging hippie with a brown dog (maybe a Doberman?) called Jeff, Fuzzy is the owner of Eureka Taxi, which has had more than its share of ups and downs over the years.

Over the weekend, I give Fuzzy a call for a lift to the Eureka Market, the town’s sole natural foods store. It doesn’t take long for us to discover that we are kindred spirits, chewing the fat like old pals, ambling along in a white Mercedes station wagon with a bad transmission.

With three brimming bags of groceries, I further describe my book project (a collection of meatless menus to help meat eaters take a break from meat once a week), which gets him an invitation to be a village taste tester. Among many things, I ask him about his favorite kind of cookie.

“That would be oatmeal raisin,” he says definitively, but with a soft smile, as if talking about an old girlfriend.

Then he spins this yarn about growing up in Denver, where he played with a boy down the road, whose mother would bake a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies every day for the boys as an after school snack. “We used to put’em in our pockets and then go play.”

So that perhaps he could relive some of  life’s sweeter moments, I bake Fuzzy a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. As I hand him a bunch wrapped in a paper towel, this fuzzy white-bearded, pony-tailed, taxi-driving dude grins ear to ear.  I explain that this version, which is also my favorite, (details below) yields lacey cookies – thin and crisp rather than thick and cakey – but he can hardly hear me. He’s too busy doing a jig.

Lacey Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from “The New Basics Cookbook” by Julee Rosso & Sheila Lukins

Ingredients
1 ½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (I prefer1 teaspoon)
½ teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup (packed) brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup dried currants (Generally, I use 1 cup raisins)
¼ cup chopped walnuts (I usually omit)

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly grease baking sheets (I have used cooking spray and I have lined baking tray with parchment paper in lieu of fat.)

Toss oats, flour, cinnamon and baking soda together in a bowl.

Cream butter and both sugars together (I recommend a hand held mixer rather than a stand mixer) until combined and a bit fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Slowly beat in dry ingredients. At some point, you may want to use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to incorporate mixture. Add dried fruit and nuts, if using.

Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets and bake until golden, 10 minutes. Leave cookies on baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Yields about 3 dozen cookies.