Talk of a meal that pairs excellently well with tea or coffee, oatmeal cookies cannot be farfetched. They are a bit healthier and can be taken as you want as desserts, whether after dinner or in the morning. Oatmeal always feels different irrespective of if it is baked to give bars or cookies or it is in a very big bowl with various toppings. It is usually satisfying and filling, very perfect whenever you are stuck inside on rainy days.
If you want to know how perfect oatmeal cookies should be, you are looking at having the inside with a chewy texture and the outside slightly crispy. This is exactly how your oatmeal cookie recipe should be. The smell they give is also heavenly as you bake them, this is like a bonus or addition to the benefits they render. Oats are considered to be grains that are nutritional, giving the diet more fiber. Another thing oatmeal cookies do is that generally help to stay very full longer than other meals and it means you may not eat them all very fast even though you might want to do that.
What To Expect From This Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
The recipe for an oatmeal cookie that we want to discuss with you does not use butter due to the fact that it is quite difficult to have access to some perishable goods. What we use for this recipe is pantry staples found in almost every household. The recipe uses vegetable shortening that you don’t have to refrigerate, unlike the butter. If you have had an unopened large shortening can in your pantry, it is time for you to use the pantry staples for the experiment of baking some meals.
What Is Shortening?
Fats that are solid at normal room temperature are regarded as shortening. They are used in making pastries and some other baked foods. Semi-solid fats are regarded as vegetable shortening that have smoke point that is higher than that of butter. Unlike butter, you don’t have to refrigerate shortening and it is much cheaper as compared to butter. In case you are a type of person that cannot take dairy, shortening is a very good option if you are going to bake.
Butter and shortening have different properties and this factor will surely have an effect on the texture of the baked goods. This is because butter tends to contain some water that makes it excellent for creating a crisper cookie than shortening will do because shortening does not have water. Shortening does not melt as fast as butter, making cookies created with butter thinner than that of shortening. Shortening usually creates a thicker cookie with a different flavor to that which was created with butter. A lot of people prefer to use butter than to use shortening to bake, but shortening can also be a perfect substitute or replacement for butter. The oatmeal cookies serve as proof.
Which Oats To Use?
Whenever you want to bake with oatmeal, use quick-cooking oats or rolled oats to do the baking. Both of the oats types work excellently for baking but they usually produce textures that are slightly different. While rolled oats tend to create a chewier cookie, quick-cooking oats tend to absorb more of the moisture and this will make it to produce a slightly softer cookie. Both rolled oats and quick-cooking oats could be interchangeably used in baking, but you should always resist the urge to steel-cut oats. It is not preferable to use steel-cut oats to make cookies because they take a longer time to soften. You will also have to cook them before you use them to bake.
Mix-ins and Spices
Even though the cookies are very delicious when eaten alone, you can still add some other ingredients depending on your taste and the ingredients that are available for you. You can make different flavors, combining two or three ingredients to the cookie mix and you are certain to enjoy them. Check out below for the ingredients you can combine with your oatmeal cookies, we will mention just a few:
- Dried Cranberries
- Raisins
- Sliced almonds
- Walnuts
- Chocolate chips
Oatmeal flavor with classic cinnamons is very delicious and it is also easy to have a change in the recipe by adding other spices to it. You can try to add spices such as cloves, ginger, or nutmeg. You may also use pumpkin spice, different spices blend that will give you a perfect holiday. Use other extracts such as maple or almond in case you do not have your vanilla extract.
How To Make Oatmeal Cookies Without Butter
We have checked out the difference between butter and shortening and we have been able to understand the results either of them will give when used to make oatmeal cookies. We believe you have a full understanding of what shortening and butter are, having already highlighted them above. What we need to check now are the steps, pictures, and instructions that will illustrate how you can make your cookies without using butter. We hope you will find it very helpful to follow and you can enjoy your cookies as you are supposed to. Follow the steps below:
Step 1: Allow your oven to preheat to a temperature of 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 2: Get a very large bowl and cream your shortening and brown sugar.
Step 3: You will proceed to beat in your egg and then add the vanilla extract
Step 4: Get yourself a different or separate bowl and mix your cinnamon, baking soda, salt, flour, and oats.
Step 5: Proceed by adding half of what you have in your dry mix to what you have in your wet mix and allow it to mix.
Step 6: You will need to add your milk and also add the remainder of your dry mixture. Proceed to mix them until all of the ingredients are perfectly mixed.
Step 7: You will then proceed to form your dough into different balls and put them on a cookie sheet that you have already greased.
Step 8: Allow it to bake for about 15 to 18 minutes observing it until the cookies get slightly brown.
Ensure that you know your oven very well, you can buy a cheap oven thermometer so that you can check the temperature to ensure that the internal temperature the oven is set to is correct. Your cookies will not turn out good if the oven is baking the cookies too cold or too hot.
You can then enjoy your oatmeal cookies by allowing them to sit for up to five minutes on your baking sheet before you transfer them to cool in a wire rack. Enjoy it with a cup of coffee or a glass of milk.
Oatmeal Cookies Without Butter
Total yield: 24
preparation time: FIFTEEN (15) MINUTES
cooking time: EIGHTEEN (18) MINUTES
total time taken: 33 MINUTES
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
Ingredients Used
- One teaspoon of cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon of baking soda
- One cup of all-purpose flour
- Three cups of instant oats
- Two Teaspoons of vanilla extracts
- ¼ cup of milk
- One large egg
- One-and-a-half cup of packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup of shortening
Now, let us go in-depth into the ingredients that were used.
- Cinnamon: You need to select any ground cinnamon of your favorite. The higher the quality of the cinnamon, the better the taste.
- Shortening: Remember we are trying to make oatmeal cookies without butter, so we used shortening instead. We have already discussed the effect this will give to the oatmeal cookies. Butter tends to contain some water that makes it excellent for creating a crisper cookie than shortening will do because shortening does not have water. Shortening does not melt as fast as butter, making cookies created with butter thinner than that of shortening. Shortening usually creates a thicker cookie.
- Egg: Ensure that the egg you are going to use is at room temperature, this will go a long way in helping your cookies.
- Vanilla Extracts: To get the best taste, endeavor to use pure vanilla extract, no additive, or imitation.
- Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar is recommended for this recipe of an oatmeal cookie. But if you want it to be a bit bolder with molasses taste, then you should use dark brown sugar.
- Salt: Using pure, fine sea salt is the best, In case you only have access to iodized salt, it is better to decrease the amount of salt you will use to half.
How can you freeze Oatmeal Cookie Dough
Instead of you to bake your oatmeal cookie dough, you can freeze them to bake later. Follow the steps below to freeze correctly.
Step 1: Put the oatmeal cookie dough balls on your non-stick cookie sheet. Then place them inside your freezer for up to one or two hours or until you notice that it is firm.
Step 2: Transfer the dough balls into an airtight container. Use a freezer-friendly Ziploc bag or a glass container.
Step 3: You can freeze it for up to one month.
When you are ready to bake, remove the oatmeal cookie dough balls from your freezer and allow them to come to room temperature. You can then bake following the instructions we highlighted above.
