I Made Elmo's Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Cookies and Now I'm Doing Better
Elmo has had a rough start to 2024. First, he innocently took to Twitter/X and asked the simple question of "How is everyone doing?" and was bombarded by thousands of trauma-riddled responses. Elmo is a good friend for asking, but not even the sweetest, kindest puppet can process all of that upset. Days later, he was personally victimized by comedian Larry David on live TV.
Because of all of this, I've had Elmo on my mind lately. So when I ran across his cookie recipe making the rounds online, I knew that I had to give it a shot. I hoped that I could report some good news back to my favorite furry muppet to give him a little pick me up—and make myself a tasty treat in the process.
Get the recipe: Elmo's Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients for Elmo's Oatmeal Cookies
For this recipe, you need: butter, dark brown sugar, eggs, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla extract, whole fresh or frozen cranberries, rolled oats and cream of tartar.
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
How to Make Elmo's Oatmeal Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350°. Cream the softened butter with the dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add the eggs and mix well. Add in the cream of tartar, baking soda and vanilla, then stir in the oats.
Next, add in the whole wheat and all-purpose flour and mix in the cranberries. Elmo's recipe says you can shape the cookie dough in a cookie cutter (he suggests a heart shape, naturally). Or you can simply drop them by the spoonful onto a baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Related: The Original 1938 Toll House Cookie Recipe
Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
What I Thought of Elmo's Oatmeal Cookies
Making Elmo's cookies involves a lot of ingredients, but it was worth it. Once everything was measured out, it was a cinch to throw together into one bowl and mix by hand.
Elmo's oatmeal cookies came out of the oven soft and chewy with just a hint of sweetness. The addition of cream of tartar makes the cookies super soft because it prevents the sugar from crystalizing and crisping up. The oatmeal and whole wheat flour gave the cookies a nice hearty texture and flavor.
I really wanted to try these cookies studded with cranberries as Elmo called for in his recipe, but cranberries (both fresh and frozen) are extremely difficult to find in February. Instead, I subbed in dried golden raisins, though dried cranberries would work well too. I mean, who doesn't love a good old-fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie?
Once cranberries are back in season, I'll definitely make another batch of the cookies as Elmo intended. I bet the whole cranberries will add a nice pop of bright red color and tartness to the cookie.
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Courtesy of Jessica Wrubel
Tips for Making Elmo's Oatmeal Cookies
Use what you have. Like I said, I couldn't find cranberries, so I subbed in raisins since that's what I had in my pantry. A good rule of thumb if you sub in dried fruit for fresh: use three-quarters of the amount. So for this recipe, I used 3/4-cup of dried raisins instead of 1-cup of fresh cranberries.
Use salted butter—or add salt. The ingredients didn't list out specifically what kind of butter to use, so I went with the standard when baking: unsalted. However, because the recipe didn't include any salt, the cookies were a little more bland than they would have been with a dash of salt. Next time I'll either use salted butter or add salt to the recipe.
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