Oatmeal Scotchies

My grandma used to make a good, very plain, oatmeal cookie that I loved.  When I was compiling family recipes I asked her about it.  She told me that the cookie was actually made from the crust recipe for a date turnover.  She’d copied the recipe from a women’s magazine early in her marriage but found that my grandpa didn’t care for dates.  He did, however, like the oatmeal crust very much, so she made it into cookies. 

Grandma mixed the oatmeal dough, pressed it into a pan and baked it just until it was set.  As soon as it came out of the oven, she cut it into bars. 

I looked forward to those cookies.  Still do.  If you’d like to try the plain version just use the recipe below, omitting the butterscotch chips.

I came to add butterscotch chips to Grandma’s recipe because I was given a bag of them one day and was looking for a way to use them up without having to buy more ingredients.  The oatmeal cookie recipe recommended itself to me because I had everything on hand that I needed to make it, and because it was plain enough to be able to take on other flavours. 

My fella loves, loves, LOVES Oatmeal Scotchies.  I have to stash them away or he’ll eat the whole pan in a day or two. 

Me?  Well, I still like the plain ones best. 

You can try them both ways and then decide which one is your favourite.

To make Oatmeal Scotchies, you’ll need:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (or put 1 teaspoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup and add enough milk to make 1/4 cup of liquid in total)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
• 2 cups flour 
• 1-300 gram bag of butterscotch chips (300 grams = about 10.6 ounces.  I think these are sold in 12 ounce bags in the U.S.  If you're buying a 12 ounce bag, I'd just go for the gusto and put the whole bag in there.)

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the buttermilk and mix well.

In a separate bowl, stir together the baking soda, rolled oats, and flour.

Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and stir until the dough is crumbly but holds together when you compress it with your hands.

Mix the butterscotch chips into the cookie dough.  It should still be quite crumbly looking.

Line the bottom of a 10 x 15 inch rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Turn the dough out onto the lined cookie sheet.  Press the dough out so that it’s distributed in an equal thickness all over the pan.

Bake the dough at 350ºF until it’s set around the edges but still a little soft in the middle.  In my oven this takes 15 to 20 minutes. 

Cut the baked dough into bars as soon as you take it out of the oven. 

As you can see, I’m still challenged when it comes to cutting a straight line.  In this case though, it works in my favour.  Jack has more of a sweet tooth than I do so he takes the bigger pieces and I take the smaller ones.

Let the cookies cool completely in the pan before trying to remove them.  Re-cut the bars along the scribed lines from your earlier cut.  Once you’ve made that second cut, they should release from the pan quite easily.

Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container.  They freeze well.