Blueberry Ice Cream and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This is a combination for a hot summer night, sitting on the porch with some people you like, without a plan. It is kind of a deconstructed blueberry crisp. You will probably want to keep the ice cream cold in the kitchen, so you can have someone go back in to get seconds. The oatmeal cookies are made with the recipe from the Quaker Oats box, which really cannot be beat. If you'd like to make super huge oatmeal cookies of the sort sold commercially in so many places, you will need to add at least a quarter of a cup more sugar to the mix. I don't know why this is, but I'm certain it is true-I've experimented with this in mind in the past. Personally, I prefer a more modest scale for a a cookie.

There is probably not one North American cook who has not made this recipe, and it is still on the box, but I will include it below, for those from elsewhere, who may not have access. I love the classic oatmeal raisin cookie; not only is it delicious, but it tastes like food. Well, yeah. But if you are truly hungry, most cookies are not a satisfying solution. You eat a couple-you're still hungry, but you don't want more cookies-the sugar is starting to make you a bit queasy. Not so the oatmeal raisin cookie. It is so food-y that it is pretty nearly as satisfying as say, a baked potato (or, of course, a bowl of oatmeal). It is also, nonetheless, a good dessert. You can put chocolate chips in instead of the raisins. That's good- though the foodiness is diminished.

The oatmeal raisin cookie is a particularly good over-the-top combination with ice cream. A happier side to the recent demise of my then-full apartment fridge is that it was ultimately replaced by a new-old fridge. The replacement fridge has a really good freezer unit, capable of actually freezing the canister of my little Cuisinart ice cream machine. So it's been a little bit of an ice cream party for me this summer. I got a whole bunch of beautiful organic blueberries in my farmbox this week, and decided on some blueberry ice cream to go with the cookies. Here's how I made that:

blueberries 2 cups
sugar 3/4 cup
a vanilla bean, split
heavy cream 1 cup
whole milk 2 cups

Mash blueberries and sugar together. Put in a saucepan,with vanilla bean and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add milk and cream. Take out bean, and save. Whirr with immersion blender until smooth. There will still be some flecks of dark in the fuschia liquid. Pour into a clean container. Replace bean. Chill thoroughly (at least 2 hours). Remove bean-for good this time. Freeze in your ice cream machine. Do not add whole berries to this. If you do, they will become disappointing, nasty little ice-pellets and spoil your treat.. Put ice cream in mold, or another clean container. Ripen in freezer, at least 6 hours.

The bit of cinnamon in the cookies is very nice with the blueberries.

"Vanishing" Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, from Quaker Oats Box

butter 1 cup, softened (2 sticks, 1/2 lb)
brown sugar 1 cup
granulated sugar 1/2 cup
eggs 2
vanilla 1 tsp
unbleached all-purpose flour 1 and 1/2 cups
baking soda 1 tsp
cinnamon 1 tsp
salt 1/2 tsp
rolled oats 3 cups
raisins 1 cup

Preheat oven to 350F. Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Mix well. Stir in oatmeal and raisins. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto an ungeased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Cool one minute on pan, then move to rack to finish cooling. Makes about 4 dozen.

Comments

[anapestic]

That is some kind of purple there.

[Tanna]

I'm just not a raisin fan, so it's chocolate chips for my oatmeal cookies right off the box!! They satisfy like real food but are packaged like a cookie! I love 'em. Right-on Lindy!

[steven]

I'm not a huge fan of raisins either so I usually substitute dried apricots or cranberries. The ice cream is very pretty and I'm sure it was delicious.

[farmgirl]

Interesting. I could have sworn the recipe I used to make off the box about 25 years ago only called for one egg. Everything else looks right.

So what's with all the raisin haters? : )

[Kimberly]

Lindy, you and your ice cream and cookies are cordially invited to come sit on our porch any summer night you like! (You'd be welcome even without the ice cream and cookies.)

I couldn't begin to count how many times I've made oatmeal cookies from the Quaker Oats recipe. I don't care much for raisins, either, so I substitute something else: chocolate chips, sunflower seeds, walnuts, dried apricots or dried cherries. Not all at once!

I love how the fabric (is it flannel?) in this photo picks up both the blue of the raw berries and the pinkish-purple of the ice cream. Yummy!

[lindy]

Wow, I had no idea that raisins were so unpopular! Must be a texture thing?
I like a lot of the other ideas for additions, but especially the sunflower seeds.( I am a fan of a little bit of salty stuff in sweet things.)
The fabric is an old t-shirt. It has always made me think of blueberries, so it came to mind.
I'd love to come sit on your porch, Kimberly. Too bad for me that it's the other side of the US.

[deccanheffalump]

This I am going to make on the 15th for Independance Day, no matter that it is not going to be a hot summer night but, I bet, a wet, windy, foul and rainy monsoon day. Should cheer up the revellers.

[steven]

I'll clarify my position on raisins, I like them when they are in something moist that rehydrates them, but when they are dry they stick to my teeth something terrible and my dentist says they're terrible for the teeth.

[lindy]

steven-Have you tried the Sunmaid "Raisins for Baking"-I think they are called, which are especially moist?
You are, of course, entitled to be as anti-raisin as you like, but if you like the raisin taste, I do find these moist ones are better in cookies and cakes than the ordinary ones. Otherwise, if ordinary raisins seem very dry, soaking them in a tasty hot liquid for a bit (especially rum), plumps them up. Dried currants, on the other hand, need more help than I've been able to give them thus far.

[Natalia]

I love the color of that blueberry ice cream. It's beautiful. I wish I could taste it!

[Megan]

That ice cream looks beautiful! I love that oatmeal cookie recipe, too. One of my good friends makes killer white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies and when I asked her to bring me the recipe she showed up with a quaker oats lid! It's a classic!

[Luisa]

This looks so delicious and soothing and REAL, for lack of a better word. And I love the little image of the ice cream scooper. What a lovely post.

[Julie]

I'm late to this party, but I think it looks like a perfect dessert, raisins in the oatmeal-raisin cookies included. I also think the fabric is a perfect with the colors of the fresh blueberries and the blueberry ice cream.

[lindy]

Deccanheffalump-and a happy Independence Day to you and all the revellers, monsoon or no!
Thanks all of you- I wish you could come and sit on my porch and have some with me. (Actually, that would have to be in the past tense, since we ate all the ice cream. But there are still quite a few cookies.)

[redfox]

Your scratchboard ice cream scoop is extremely effective! I am an exhausted and terrible daughter, but at least I can manage to remark on your excellent illustration.

[lindy]

Thank you, child-o-my-heart. Sorry you are exhausted (and terrible.) I am having a good time with the scratchboard stuff-Have you tried the little ones I sent ?

[Rebecca]

I agree that this recipe cannot be beaten for "plain" oatmeal cookies; if you ever want to try something a little more "gourmet", there's one on the King Arthur Flour website called "Escapade in Oatmeal" that I make with dried cherries and chocolate chips that's fancy enough to serve to company. There's something about that combination that seems sophisticated somehow.

Your lovely ice cream is very sophisticated--fancy enough to serve to royalty!!

[Baking Soda]

I'm late I know, but has anyone said anything about your glasses/pitchers? No? Done! They are so lovely, real "gezellig" Means comfy cozy or something alike in Dutch. And ofcourse your ice cream too, and the fabric and the cookies...but you knew that didn't you?

[lindy]

Chocolate Lady- It's just a little bit involved about the Opera thing...and probably pretty boring. But it is not unrelated to the fact that the older I get, the less I worry about embarassment, the bane of the adolescent.
Rebecca-also fancy and nice are thin, lacy oatmeal cookies with dark chocolate squiggles piped ove them and a little candied orange peel mixed in.
B. Soda-Thank you. My mother-in-law left them to me in her will-there are 12 of them and they go with a huge (and insanely heavy) matching punchbowl, with a humongeous silver ladle. Her mother-in-law had left them to her! They may be very old-but I don't know about anything earlier than that.
I really should try making punch more frequently..I've only done it a couple of times, but I've used all the parts of the set for other things pretty often. There is also a smaller matching glass bowl.
I am fond of them, though my mother-in-law was not a particularly nice person. Her children all found her very difficult, but for some reason she approved of me. (I have always suspected that this was due to some deep seated character flaw on my part-she could really be quite nasty. Or it may have been that not being her own child, I was not so desperate for the tiniest suggestion of warmth.)

[BNA]

What a lovely combination.

[Lynn D.]

I love chopped dates in oatmeal cookies. No one's mentioned dates.

[llindy]

Lynn-Believe it or not, while I was having the last of these cookies with a friend tonight, I thought of (and mentioned) the idea of dates in the cookies! (I haven't made any with dates myself yet). It is truly amazing how often we are on the same page!