Salty Oatmeal Cookies

Every summer my family vacations on Wellfleet, and all year I look forward to the oatmeal cookies you can pick up at the local market.  After picking up a box I would walk back along the beach that stretched from the pier all the way out to our one room Wellfleeter cottage.  As I walked I would take a cookie from the box and slowly eat it; the sea salt sprinkled on top perfectly complimenting the briny ocean air.  Well, these are not those cookies, but they are tasty!  They are wonderfully crisp on the outside and soft in the middle and in true Wellfleet fashion I sprinkle salt over the top before sticking them in the oven.  

Ingredients

9 oz unbleached all purpose flour

7g baking soda (see note for some chemistry talk)

4 g cinnamon

4 g salt

¾ lb butter (at room temperature)

¼ lb sugar

¾ lb light brown sugar

2 extra large eggs

½ T vanilla extract

¾ lb rolled oats (I like Bob’s Red Mill)

Fleur de Sel

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

4. Cream the butter, sugar, and light brown sugar on medium speed until light in color.  Scrape down the bowl as needed. 

5.  Blend the eggs with the vanilla.

6. Add the eggs and vanilla to the creamed butter-sugar mixture in three stages until incorporated.  

7.  On low speed add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and oats in three stages, make sure to keep scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl so that everything is worked in. 

8. Scoop the batter onto baking sheet, make sure the little guys have room to breathe, and sprinkle the tops with fleur de sel. 

9. Bake for 10 minutes, or until brown around the edges, rotating half way through. 

10. Let the cookies rest on the sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.  (If you don't have a cooling rack... I just discovered that if you take apart the shelves of your dorm fridge you can make one of your own!) 

So pretty.

I also did a few dozen with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.  While tasty, I still prefer the original! 

Makes 3 dozen

NOTE: Today one of my friends asked me why I used baking soda in my cookies and so I thought I would take a moment to explain.  Bakers have very strong opinions on what they like to use in their recipes: baking powder or baking soda, maybe a bit of both.  The truth is they both will result in a different product.  While both are chemical leavening agents (meaning they make batter rise when brought to high temperatures by the release of carbon dioxide), they react differently depending on the other ingredients present in the recipe.  It should be noted that baking power actually contains baking soda but should not be used in place of baking soda.  

Baking Soda: Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate (basic).  When combined with an acidic agent (such as chocolate) and moisture there is an immediate chemical reaction.  Because the reaction is immediate you must get your goods in the oven tout de suite or you will have some paper thin cookies.

Baking Powder: Baking powder contains both an alkaline ingredient (sodium bicarbonate) and an acidifying agent (cream of tartar) and a drying agent (starch) (so both an acid and a base).  When exposed to liquid it produces carbon dioxide gas, which leavens doughs and batters.  Double-acting backing powder contains ingredients that produce two leavening reactions: once upon exposure to liquid, the second when heated.