Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I've made these cookies before and really enjoyed them, this time I tweaked the recipe based off of some suggestions I saw online. Overall, I like them much better this time. Plus, I didn't forget to add the vanilla, which I think helped. To add variety, I like to split the raisins with 1/2 normal and 1/2 white raisins to give the cookies some interesting visuals.

Makes: Roughly 36 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins (soak in hot water for 10 or so minutes to plump up the raisins, then drain)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy.
3. Add in the eggs, and vanilla until mix until smooth. 
4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and salt in a separate bowl.
5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients a bit at a time until just combined. 
6. Stir in the oats and raisins. 
7. Put into the freezer for roughly 20-30min to chill the dough.
8. Drop by rounded 1/2 tablespoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets covered in parchment paper.
9. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until light and golden. Do not overbake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely.

Thoughts:
The recipe originally called for 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening, but I like the version with all butter better. It was missing something last time. Also, I added 1/2 t more cinnamon than the recipe originally called for, along with adding in the ginger and nutmeg. I like them better this way, but we shall see what the public consensus is.

Next Time:

• I want to try adding more raisins, some of the cookies seem to have a deficit of them, which is definitely something to be rectified.
• I want to try adding a little more allspice. Or maybe the same level of allspice, but add in a little bit of cloves, like the original recipe calls for.