Published March 17, 2011.

I consider myself to be a pretty decent cook but to paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, I am a young baker. There is more science to baking, whereas cooking is more of an art form. I think part of my frustration also comes from my lack of good baking equipment. I would love to regularly bake bread but my oven just isn’t up to the task. Mark Bittman, food writer for the New York Times, has an excellent recipe for no-knead bread that I have had good luck with but otherwise my technical limitations get in the way of me becoming a true baking enthusiast. That, and I really don’t like having gunk on my hands so messing with dough kind of gives me the willies.

The one exception to my baking-phobia is cookies. I can make a pretty decent cookie. While everyone likes a cookie, I have found myself wanting to bake them more ever since Quinn, the little scamp, became such an important part of my life. If everyone likes cookies then 2 year old kids really love cookies. Some weeks ago I had assembled all the ingredients for Oatmeal Raisin Cookie but for one reason or another I had not gotten around to baking them. By Monday night, I felt like I could not delay it any longer.

Basic cookies are easy to make. Though, my grandmother's recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies has never been successfully replicated by any member of my family, try as we might. Kitchen gadgetry does help with most cooking processes and cookies are no exception. So, if you are thinking of making a batch then there are a few tools that I would recommend to speed your progress. First, get a Silpat. Make sure you order the right size for your baking sheets. Silpats, for the uninitiated, are sheets of high-temperature resistant silicon formed over a flexible mesh of some description. Plop one down in your baking sheet and you never have to grease the pan or scrape burnt cookies off of it again. I have noticed no change in flavor and they are deemed to be totally safe for use in food productions. Second, get a small ice-cream style scoop with a thumb-lever that releases the contents. I use a two tablespoon variety which I find makes nice big cookies but ones that are not too large and thus cook un-evenly. A light spraying of Pam on the interior of the scoop or some other aerosolized, food-grade lubricant will make the dough release a bit easier. Forming the cookies with two spoons may be the traditional method but I find it imprecise and time consuming. Both of these items can be found at your local restaurant supply store. I prefer Ducote’s.

The base of my recipe came from the back of the Crystal Wedding Oats container. But the one you will find HERE has a few modifications that I think you will find superior. RECIPE FOR OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES...

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