Oatmeal Raisin Crisps - Hannah Swensen

Joanne Fluke's Oatmeal Raisin Crisps

1 cup (2 sticks) melted butter
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs, beaten (just drop them in a glass and whip them with a fork)
1 cup raisins (either regular or golden, you choose)
2 1/2 cups flour (no need to sift)
2 cups GROUND dry oatmeal (measure BEFORE grinding)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position
Melt the butter in a large microwave bowl.
Add the sugar and mix.
Then mix in the salt and the baking soda.

When the mixture has cooled to room temperature, mix in the eggs.
Add the flour and stir it up. Then mix in the raisins.

Prepare your oatmeal. (Use Quakers if you have it --
the cardboard canister is useful for all sorts of things.)
Measure out two cups and dump it in the food processor,
chopping it with the steel blade until it's the consistency
of coarse sand. Dump it in your dough and mix it all up.
(This dough will be fairly stiff.)

Roll walnut-sized dough balls with your hands and place
them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet.
(If it's too sticky to roll, place the bowl in the refrigerator
for thirty minutes and try again.)

Squish the dough balls down with a fork in a crisscross
pattern (like peanut butter cookies.)

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet
for 2 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.