Drunken Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe

Recipe for Drunken Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

These cookies have been a favorite that I’ve brought to gatherings for years, in particular meetings of various whiskey groups. Besides being tasty, they’re filling – which is a plus if you’re engaged in a night of imbibing. The first time takes some planning with soaking the raisins, but well worth it! Yields 2-3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients
2 cups of raisins
1 1/4 cup of water
5-8 tablespoons of bourbon*
2/3 cup of butter (unsalted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

* As to the choice of bourbon, use whatever you have laying around, cheaper the better (as while the flavor is there, it isn’t prominent with everything else).

1. Set 1 cup of raisins in a jar. Add bourbon until raisins are completely covered. Microwave for 1 min on high, or until bourbon begins to slightly boil. Using gloves/mitts (be careful!) remove jar and seal tightly. Let sit at least overnight, but a week or two if you can (I’ll have jars pre-made that sit for months without any issues). When you’re ready to make the cookies, strain out the raisins, saving the bourbon for . . . whatever (I like to put it in the fridge and just drink it as a sweet cocktail later!)

2. Add the other cup of raisins to the 1 1/4 cup of water, and bring to a boil (again, I use the microwave). Let boil for 1-2 minutes. Strain raisins out, but keep the raisin water for later (this part is critical!) Let both cool (I usually stick both in the fridge for 20-30 min).

3. Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, oats, and 9 tbsp of the raisin water (once cooled a bit; doesn’t have to be room temp, but cool enough it isn’t melting/cooking the ingredients!). Stir to combine. Add the flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the raisins.

4. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Drop a spoonful (about golf ball sized) onto the cookie sheet, leaving plenty of room between (I fit a dozen on a standard cookie sheet with 2-3 inches between them). Bake at 350 degrees F for 14-16 minutes.

The foundation recipe this is built on had nothing to do with whiskey, but was the best oatmeal raisin cookie recipe I’d tried. The biggest change here is to use 2 cups of raisins, and soaking one in bourbon. Can you soak BOTH in bourbon and skip the boiling step? You can, but you’ll want to still use 9 tbsp of water to bring enough moisture to the party. I tried subbing this for 9 tbsp of bourbon (that recently held the raisins so it was good and sweet), but that didn’t work nearly as well.

This is a recipe where you can absolutely use other types of whiskey, although in my experience the nuance is lost. I’ve tried this with rye whiskey soaked raisins, and it turned out alright, but not noticeably different. Maybe a really peaty single malt would stand up more, but I haven’t tried it (mainly figuring ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’).

Besides simply enjoying the bourbon after the raisins have soaked/steeped in it, I’ve bottled some and used it in place of vanilla extract at times (a tip from Richard!)

Cheers!
Gary