RECIPE: Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies From Quaker Oats
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National Oatmeal Cookie Day is April 30th. America’s favorite oatmeal cookie recipe is below. The history of Quaker Oats is below. And here’s the history of oats from prehistory to the present. Prep time is 20 minutes, and cook time is 8 minutes. Ingredients For 4 Dozen Cookies 1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add the combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. Add the oats and raisins; mix well. 2. DROP the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to a wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered. 3. HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase the flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed. 1. PRESS the dough onto the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. 2. CUT into bars. Store tightly covered. Yield: 24 bars. One hundred years ago, Quaker introduced the now-iconic cylinder package for Old Fashioned Quaker Oats. The cylindrical package was a first in the industry. While the packaging design has been updated, the round canister can still be found on store shelves today. The Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna, Ohio, was founded in 1877 by Henry Parsons Crowell, who purchased the bankrupt Quaker Oat Mill Company there. Canned foods were a hot new trend in 1915, and Crowell noticed the public’s growing appetite for colorful, conveniently sized packaging. He began to sell his oats in distinctive round cardboard cartons. At the time, many groceries, including cereal grains, were sold in bulk from barrels. |
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Today, The Quaker Oats Company sells more than 350 million pounds of oatmeal annually, and some 120 million canisters are produced at its Cedar Rapids plant. A food conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, it has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001. Quaker also lays claim as the first to feature a recipe on packaging: Oatmeal Bread, in 1891. In 1908, the brand introduced the first cookie recipe on a package: Oat Cakes. In 1922, the company introduced Quaker Quick Oats, one of America’s first convenience products. It can be swapped for Quaker Old Fashioned Oats in baking recipes. In 1966, Quaker Instant Oatmeal pouches debuted to help people keep pace with a busy, on-the-go lifestyle. Cup packaging debuted in 2000, to portable eating even easier. Earlier this year, Quaker launched Quick 3-Minute Steel Cut Oats. The History Of The Quaker Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies As previously noted, the first-ever oatmeal cookie recipe to appear on the company’s package was in 1908: Oat Cakes. Those first oatmeal cookies were dry and hard with no sweetener—more like crackers than cookies. The precursor of today’s Vanishing Oatmeal recipe, a sweet oatmeal cookie, appeared on the packages sometime between 1910 and 1917. After the 1929 stock market crash, when Americans needed a sweet treat, Quaker’s Oat[s] Macaroons appeared, the first oatmeal drop cookie (so-called because spoonfuls of dough were dropped onto cookie sheets and baked—here are the different types of cookies). Like macaroons, they contained almond extract—no raisins (here’s the recipe). The company has continued to keep up with the times, creating breakfast bars, no-bake bars, and different styles of oatmeal cookies to meet consumer preferences. Here are more historical notes, and a link to all Quaker recipes. The Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe, above, remains a consumer favorite. As of 2015, it’s been on the Old Fashioned Oats canister for 20 years.
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