Chewy Granola Cookies with Hazelnuts and Raisins
It will come as no surprise to you all that I can often find joy in a cookie jar. These granola cookies with oatmeal, hazelnuts and raisins are a sure thing to bring sunlight into any cloudy day. The oatmeal and raisins make these guys incredibly chewy, and the granola and coarsely chopped hazelnuts offer a nice crunch in contrast. These granola cookies are a favorite in our household, and the freezer is never without a stash of them to grab at a moment’s notice. A note about this recipe: I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn’t. This recipe comes, for the most part, from ‘Dessert in Half the Time’ by Linda Eckhardt and Diana Butts. I own a lot of cookbooks - over 1,300 to be exact, but only a very few are considered favorites….and every book these two have written are on my Favorites list. They are geniuses, and on top of that, they are from Oregon.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks of butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 2/3 cup unbleached flour
- 1 cup rolled oats not the quick cooking variety
- 1 ½ cups of your favorite granola the more stuff in it, like nuts, dried fruit, etc., the better
- 2 cups coarsely chopped hazelnuts don’t worry about rubbing the skins off
- 2 cups raisins
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then add in the sugars and continue beating until well incorporated and, yes – light and fluffy.
- With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, pausing one minute before adding each egg. This allows the eggs to emulsify and blend with the butter more evenly. Strange as it may seem, it makes a big difference in your finished product.
- When the eggs are blended in, add the vanilla and blend until just mixed in.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and add the baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until blended.
- Add the flour and mix until blended, then add the rolled oats and mix until blended.
- Still on low speed, add the granola, then the hazelnuts, and finally the raisins.
- At this point you can either chill the dough until you are ready to bake cookies (I’ve let this dough sit for four days in the fridge with absolutely no problem) or get on with the baking right away.
- Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Using a small ice cream scoop that holds 2 tablespoons of dough (which is what I use), scoop out 8 cookies per sheet. They have a tendency to spread out a little, so you want to give them some room.
- Pat the dough down slightly with your hand. This helps the cookie spread out more uniformly.
- Here’s the trick: Bake until just a little underdone. This took about 12 minutes in my oven but might take longer in yours so best to judge by what you can see. The edges should be browned, and the centers of the cookie will look much lighter but appear ‘set’ and not like raw dough.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes, or until firm enough to remove to a cooling rack. They are pretty soft when they first come out of the oven, so give them a little time to chill out on the baking sheet and you will be well rewarded with a cookie that doesn’t fall to pieces when you pick it up.
