Well, it appears that April was a special month around here!
Ok so you’re thinking because Easter just passed, or maybe because we just celebrated Eid-al-Fitr, Orthodox Easter or Passover? Or because spring is in the air?
Nope you’re wrong! Why . . . ? Because ….. wait for it…..
National Oatmeal Cookie Day today!
I mean - really - what could make for a better end to the month?
To honor the occasion, we decided to dig into the history of the oatmeal cookie and then let you in a little secret – pssst oatmeal is good for you!
Oatmeal cookies were introduced to the American sweet tooth in 1896 by Fannie Farmer. That’s a familiar sounding name but I bet most of you don’t actually know who she is. I didn’t!
Farmer was the Julia Child of her day; the mother of the modern day recipe that incorporated actual measurements into cooking. Apparently, before Farmer’s scientific approach people (ok women), literally said “ add some of this, then a pinch of that.”
Note: Farmers recipe above did not include butter making it more of cracker than a cookie!
This style of cookie became very popular because of the “health halo” from the oatmeal. Yes, even back then people wanted a healthier way to snack. Thus, as early as 1900 you could find the recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies on the Quaker Oatmeal container.
What are the health benefits of Oatmeal you ask? Well they are myriad!
- Oats are associated with heart health benefits such as lowering cholesterol (both total and "bad" LDL cholesterol) and helping with weight control.
- The soluble fiber in oats can help slow digestion, increase satiety, and suppress appetite
- Oats contains vitamins and minerals including vitamin B1, or thiamin and manganese
Now let’s address the issue of raisins. First keep in mind that the holiday is National Oatmeal Cookie today and not National Oatmeal Raisin Cookie day. This is important to us and we are in complete agreement regarding leaving out the raisins!
That’s why our O’ts cookies are deliciously dressed up and enhanced with both exotic ingredients like sicilian sea salt and star anise and typical ingredients such as cinnamon and chocolate chips. Note the absence of raisins!
Raisins can actually be extremely polarizing. This article from Cosmopolitan lists 18 fantastic reasons “why raisins ruin everything” and these are 3 of our favorites from that list:
- They pretend to be chocolate chips
- They’re really hard to pick out of something
- They look like small animal droppings
And last, but not by any means least, we want to leave you with our favorite anti-raisin quote. This is from the movie Benny and Joon with Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9rlr6b-7cw
Masterson’s character Joon says this about raisins:
They used to be fat and juicy and now they're twisted. They had their lives stolen. Well, they taste sweet, but really they're just humiliated grapes. I can't say I am a big supporter of the raisin council.