The Wide Angle: Show oatmeal raisin cookies the love that they deserve
Published 7:01 am Sunday, November 6, 2016
- Just give me that oatmeal, raisiny goodness. I don’t even need the milk.
I had an interesting, if not weird, short conversation with one of my Twitter followers the other morning.
It came after I tweeted that I would take up the sacrifice and accept a bid for president (Buster has decided to be my running mate for those who care. I will still accept your vote and he will accept your treats).
It was a tough decision to jump into such a contentious race, but I believe the American people need someone they can trust to get the job done. In my case that’s getting the much-maligned oatmeal raisin cookie to be appreciated, summed up in my motto: Make Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Great Again. Hopefully the Great Pumpkin doesn’t sue me for similarity to his slogan, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take for the American people.
Needless to say my follower wasn’t impressed. She threatened to move to Canada after proclaiming the oatmeal raisin cookie the worst cookie ever. I disagreed and maybe someday I will have a debate with her on the subject.
Probably from Saskatchewan.
Still, it got me thinking as to why the oatmeal raisin cookie is so disliked. Nobody I knows dislikes cookies, oatmeal at best gets a grade of “meh” and raisins are generally well-received on their own. For the love of everything they are only dried grapes so how can this combination be so hated?
The texture was my first thought. Admittedly, it does look a little hinky; a little suspect if you will.
It look rough, with grains of oatmeal sticking up over the surface. The raisins, these ominous black things, huddle just beneath the surface, visible here and there.
And when you take a bite the texture follows, crumbling in your mouth only to give away to the chewiness of the raisin. That’s a little weird sure, but in a society that eats squid and octopus, this should hardly condemn this treat to lowest level of baking Hell.
Sometimes accompanying the taste is a slight burned tang from those raisins sticking out of the cookie, but it doesn’t last long.
Few people could give me an answer aside from a friend who said raisins don’t belong in cookies. They taste weird.
It’s certainly no more weird than getting candy canes for Halloween.
I know candy canes aren’t baked goods, but the daughter of our publisher, who usually gets me my post-Halloween candy fix stash, got candy canes this year. Honestly, who does that?
Sorry, I just needed to get that off my chest. It’s been bugging me … a lot.
Okay so back to the cookie, the simple, awesomness that is the oatmeal raisin cookie.
It’s divine. It falls easily into my top three cookies of all time. It goes oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and these cornflake, marshmallow wreath-looking things my mom used to make — and doesn’t anymore.
I’m not even sure if these really qualify as a cookie, but in this case we are saying they do and yes I’ve voiced several complaints to my mom about these not being made anymore.
Like when I was nine and wanted Optimus Prime, she has ignored me. Man she’s good at that.
Okay so we’ve established, in this column anyway, that I carry the banner for the oatmeal raisin cookie which everybody hates and so far our only real answer is: it’s weird.
But I have to know and so like Indiana Jones looking for The Ark of the Covenant, I am in search for the reasons why people dislike the oatmeal raisin cookie.
If I get enough answers I will return to this subject next week. Send me your ideas on the cookie to photodesk@austindailyherald.com or hit me up on Twitter @EricJohnsonADH, #MakeOatmealRaisinCookiesGreatAgain.