Giving the Corporate Machine Credit Where Credit Is Due: the Outrageous Oatmeal Cookie

A few weeks ago I noticed an interesting entry on the Washington Post food section All We Can Eat blog about baked goods from Starbucks. By way of background, I'm not the sort of person who buys baked goods from Starbucks. I rarely ever set foot in the place to begin with, since I'm not a coffee drinker. But on the rare occasion that someone wants to "meet for coffee" and I find myself at a Starbucks, I order an iced tea and I walk by the pastry case without a second thought. (Okay, once in a blue moon, I have purchased the packaged madeleines that they sell by the cash register, but that's about it.)

Nonetheless, I was intrigued by Candy Sagon's blog post, "A Cookie Without the Coffee (or the Barista)," where she gushed over Starbucks' oatmeal cookies and reported that the company had started giving out the recipe as part of the chain's efforts to emphasize that it is serving "real food." Sagon tried the recipe and was very happy with the results. Even though I've never tried the oatmeal cookie at Starbucks, I was intensely curious and decided that I had to give the recipe a try as well.

I didn't have any dark raisins on hand, so I used only golden raisins and cranberries. The recipe is a snap to put together. I took the cookies out of the oven when the edges of the cookies were golden brown, even though the centers were still not set. The cookies firmed up quite a bit as I cooled them on the cookie sheets for about 10 minutes before gently transferring them to racks. The final result was a soft, incredibly chewy cookie with crisp edges. It was truly delicious with an amazing texture. The only thing I might change is substituting either chopped apricots or dried cherries for the cranberries, because I thought the strong tart flavor of the cranberries was not quite balanced with the rest of the cookie -- although I may have created this problem by not including dark raisins. I can't really complain, though, because it was a great cookie the way it was. I will give credit where credit is due: this recipe from Starbucks does indeed make an exceptional cookie.

It almost -- but not really -- makes me want to go to Starbucks to buy the real thing. I probably won't bother... That's the beauty of baking self-sufficiency!

Recipe: Outrageous Oatmeal Cookie from Starbucks.

Comments

bd20009 said…
that's my favorite cookie at Starbucks. yours manage to look even better than their's!!
Oh, an expert! Next time I make these cookies, I'll send one your way so that I can get an opinion from someone who knows and likes the real thing!
Kristina said…
I LOVE the Starbuck's oatmeal cookie, and the other thing I like about Starbuck's is that their sweets taste the same ALL OVER. Good QC over the baking chain. Even in Europe!!!!
Kristina said…
I LOVE the Starbuck's oatmeal cookie, and the other thing I like about Starbuck's is that their sweets taste the same ALL OVER. Good QC over the baking chain. Even in Europe!!!!