Tate's-Style Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white or cane sugar
1 large egg
METHOD
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Set aside 2 baking trays.
Pulse oats in a blender or food processor to break them up. You want them coarse but not powdery.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, soda and salt. Add the oats. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter with a hand-held electric mixer or by hand. Add sugar and beat until mixture is smooth and creamy. Scrape down sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the vanilla and beat in the egg until just combined.
Add the oat-flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
Add the raisins, mixing just until combined.
Drop small spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheets and flatten firmly with a fork, dipping fork into water if necessary to prevent sticking. Bake until cookies are uniformly golden brown, approximately 12-14 minutes.
Let cookies cool on baking sheets until set, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
RECIPE NOTES
I’ve been on the hunt for a copycat recipe of the Tate’s oatmeal cookies. While I found recipes for crunchy cookies, they weren’t thin and crispy like Tate’s. I came across a video on YouTube of Kathleen King, the founder of Tate’s, making her famous cookies but my results with the recipe she quoted yielded a more traditional cookie. It seems she wasn’t ready to divulge her trade secrets. The test kitchen at Bon Appetit tried a recipe from the Tate’s cookbook but their results were similar, a good cookie but not quite the same. They suggested the secret to getting that Tate’s potato chip-like crunch is to add more butter so I did some digging and settled on this ratio: 2 sticks of butter to 3 cups of dry ingredients vs. the 3/4 cups of butter to 4 1/4 cups of dry ingredients called for in more traditional recipes. Butter has never failed me, and voila — it worked. I also flattened the cookies with a fork prior to baking to make sure they spread nice and thin. If you’re looking for a Tate’s copycat recipe, trust me when I tell you, this is it! Feel free to add nuts, raisins, chocolate chips or whatever add-ins you fancy to make this the crispy and crunchy oatmeal cookie of your dreams.
Be sure to flatten your cookies with a fork prior to baking