My mother used to bake my
favorite cookie using the recipe inside the lid of the familiar cylindrical paperboard box with the smiley Quaker man on the front.
The cookies were chewy
and moist and yum yum yummy. No
nuts. No chocolate chips. Just raisins.
I am an oatmeal raisin cookie purist.
In the grocery store, I
hunted in the cookie maze until I spotted the smiley Quaker himself. Oh joy!
Then gloom. The package said banana nut. A travesty.
It's neighbor said chocolate
almond. Heresy.
Next to chocolate almond was cranberry
and yogurt.
Was I sleepwalking in a
bad cookie nightmare?
Not wanting to cry in the store,
I frantically pushed packages around until I finally found one on the
very back of the shelf that said Raisins.
Oh joy!
Of course I couldn't wait until I got
home to try one. I tore open the box on
my way to the car, then tore open the individual wrapper.
The first bite!
Then gloom. The soft baked object from the Quaker package
on the cookie shelf in the cookie aisle tasted nothing like my mom's oatmeal
raisin cookie. Not chewy. Not oaty.
Not even close. It was soft. It was dry. It was gummy. It had a weird flavor. It was ick ick icky.
I threw the rest away.
The box revealed why these faux oatmeal
cookies are such a disappointment. The Quaker changed his own
recipe. His new recipe has more than 50 ingredients. This is it:
Whole grain oat flour
Enriched
flour (Bleached and unbleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron,
thiamin mononitrate,
riboflavin, folic acid)
Raisins
Whole grain rolled
oats
Sugar
Whole wheat flour
Palm and high
oleic canola oil (with TBHQ preservative)
Fructose
Invert
sugar syrup
Mid-oleic
sunflower oil
Raisin
paste
Inulin
Granola
(whole grain rolled oats, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sugar,
partially
hydrogenated soybean oil, honey, brown sugar, molasses)
Dried
eggs
Modified
corn starch
Corn
syrup
Poly
dextrose
Leavening
agents (sodium bicarbonate, ammonium bicarbonate)
Oat
fiber
Propylene
glycol
Mono
and di-esters of fat and fatty acids
Mono
and digycerides
Soy
lecithin
BHT
Citric
Acid
Wheat
gluten
Molasses
Calcium
phosphate
Salt
Natural
flavor
Cinnamon
Allspice
Corn
starch
Enzymes
(1422-RV1)
Here is the original recipe, first printed on the box in 1955. It has 11 ingredients. It still makes my perfect favorite cookie:
2 cups flour
½ t salt
½ t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
½ t ground cloves
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2/3 C sour milk (make by adding scant T lemon juice to milk)
1 1/3 cups Quaker oats
1 cup raisins
Sift first five ingredients together.
½ t salt
½ t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
½ t ground cloves
1 cup vegetable shortening
1 ½ cups brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2/3 C sour milk (make by adding scant T lemon juice to milk)
1 1/3 cups Quaker oats
1 cup raisins
Sift first five ingredients together.
Cream shortening
and sugar.
Add eggs and beat
until smooth.
Add dry
ingredients in small amounts alternatively with milk.
Stir in last
three ingredients.
Drop by teaspoon
onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake at 350
degrees until golden and springy to the touch, usually for 8 minutes.
