salted nutty oat cookies

I like to consider myself an oatmeal raisin cookie connoisseur. Whenever I eat at a bakery or sandwich shop, I have to try their oatmeal raisin cookies. Texas French Bread has one of my all time favorites; I think they use nutmeg. But a recent favorite is at Walton's, which in itself is worthy of mention. A picturesque cross between a bakery, little deli and florist shop on west 6th allegedly owned by Sandra Bullock. Everything there is good. I recently had green pepper chicken salad and eyed enviously my friend's Garden Party sandwich of grilled eggplant and squash with roasted red peppers, Texas Chevre and balsamic on rye. Their scones are great and their Monte Cristo looks truly epic.

But anyway, back to cookies. Their oatmeal raisin cookies are chewy (a must) but also have coarse salt sprinkled on top. So that was an aspect I wanted to try when I decided to make cookies today. I also didn't want to finish off my butter and wanted to do something with the wheat germ I have sitting in the fridge staring at me. So this is what I came up with. Wheat germ gives it a nutty taste. And I guess has some heath benefits, but I'm not much into marketing them that way since they have plenty of sugar and were made with shortening. But feel free to think of these as healthy! ...whatever helps you sleep at night.

{salted nutty oat cookies}

adapted from here and here. picture from here

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups - old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp - all purpose flour

3/4 cup  - raisins

1/4 cup - toasted wheat germ {simply replace this with an equal amount flour if you’re not interested}

1/2 tsp each - baking soda and baking powder

1 tsp - ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup - granulated sugar

1/2 cup (packed) - light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 tsp - pure vanilla extract.

coarse sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix oats, wheat germ, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Mix butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on medium speed until pale and fluffy for about 5 minutes. Fold in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add oats mixture; mix until just combined. Add raisins.

Drop dough in inch balls onto lined baking sheets.

Bake until golden and just set about 10-12 min. Sprinkle sea salt over warm cookies.