Today I am sharing my all-time favorite cookie recipe. I do not think that I have eaten any cookies more often than these raisin oatmeal cookies. I am not fond of chewy chocolate cookies (or maybe I have not eaten any good ones so far) and I prefer crunchy cookies with texture.
I have not created this recipe myself but it is an old family recipe. My mother used to make these raisins cookies, Russinkakor, a lot when I was a child - in particularly during the Christmas season - and they were always my favorite cookies. Oats and raisins are often used in Swedish baking; hartshorn salt or also known as baker's ammonia is used in old Swedish recipe. My cookie recipe contains hartshorn salt as well. Hartshorn salt can be replaced by baking powder. I made this recipe several times with baking powder and too my surprise there is not a huge difference between cookies made with hartshorn salt and baking powder. The raisin oatmeal cookies made with hartshorn salt are a little bit more crunchy.
I do hope you will try out this recipe because these cookies are so scrumptious, so simple and easy to make, and over the years, I gifted quite a few people with these cookies and everyone loves these Swedish Russinkakor.
NOTE:It might be a little bit difficult to get hold of hartshorn salt at your local grocery store (check the baking section) but you can order it online here. In Germany, for example, hartshorn salt is only available during the Christmas season since it is used only for certain German Christmas cookies. I always stock up on hartshorn salt when I am in Sweden because every grocery store carries hartshorn salt. If you have difficulties to get hold of harsthorn salt and want to try the recipe with hartshorn salt, feel free to contact me, and I will send you a sachet of hartshorn salt.
When using hartshorn salt, do not be turned off by the smell because it does not not taste great, especially, when the cookies are in the oven. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, the smell evaporates.
You can also make these cookies vegan by simply replacing the butter with high quality vegan butter.
INGREDIENTS
- 65 g / 4 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 65 g / 3/4 cup rolled oats, preferable instant oats / quick cooking oats
- 65/ 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 50 g / 1/3 cup raisins
- 30 ml / 2 tablespoons water
- 65 g / 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon hartshorn salt / baker's ammonia or 1 teaspoon baking powder, *see note above
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 175 °C / 350 °F.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan; remove the saucepan from the heat. Add sugar and raisins and mix well. Add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan and stir well. Let the dough rest for a minute.
- Form little balls (use about 1 teaspoon of the batter), place them on the baking sheets and flatten the balls. Make sure that there is a lot of space between each cookie because the cookies do spread out quite a bit.
- Bake the cookies for 12 to 13 minutes or until they are golden in color. When using baking powder the cookies may take a minute or two longer.
- Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, then place the cookies on a wire rack and let them cool completely.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container up to three weeks.
