Oatmeal is one of the finest kinds of cookie you can make, and not just because it lends that air of healthfulness.  Although that definitely doesn't hurt!  Oatmeal after all provides dietary fiber, as well as soluble fiber which can help lower cholesterol.  (That is great, because it helps to balance out all the butter.)  Oatmeal gives a cookie body without making it too heavy.  It lends a nutty flavor, and a chewy texture that cannot be reproduced with any other ingredient.  Oatmeal is also really cheap, especially if you buy it in bulk!

Oatmeal cookies can be crispy, chewy, or cake-like.  The crispiest of crispy cookies is the lace cookie, which is basically oatmeal, sugar, and butter.  It spreads out on the cookie sheet and bakes up super-brown and crispy.  Delicious!

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have the cake-like cookies.  The best of these are the so-called "breakfast cookies."  These are like a bowl of oatmeal in a portable form!  These are thick, dense, and usually containing a lot of extras like nuts, raisins, and dried fruits.  

My personal favorite oatmeal cookie falls somewhere in between.  It is thick without being dry, and tender without falling apart.  The recipe is called "Soft Oatmeal Cookies," and I have to agree.  I am convinced it's the layover which accounts for the wonderful texture.  Letting the dough sit for several hours allows the oatmeal time to soak up moisture from the other ingredients and soften accordingly.  These are really, really good.

Oatmeal can also be added to "regular" cookies, where it provides a welcome addition.  Several chocolate chip cookie recipes call for finely chopped oatmeal, just enough to give a bit of texture and lend a depth of flavor.

An oddity to the American audience is called flapjacks.  This term is synonymous with pancakes in the United States, but in Britain it is a kind of oatmeal bar cookie, heavy on the butter.  I first encountered these when I visited a friend in England fifteen years ago.  Once I was clued into them, I spotted them everywhere.  Everything from high-end flapjacks sold in the fancy confectionary stores, to a homemade square wrapped in cling film for sale on the counter at the rural gas station near my friend's home.

Flapjacks are so ubiquitous that British people apparently have to stop and think about a recipe.  People just make flapjacks, the way that we in the States would make a bowl of oatmeal.  This recipe comes closest to the flapjacks I remember, even though you can't get an exact replica without turbinado sugar (which is common in Britain but rare and expensive here).

A parting word: raisins are a hotly contested ingredient in oatmeal cookies and bars.  Some people love them; others loathe them.  I am raisin-agnostic, adding them when I'm in the mood and leaving them out when I'm not.  However, I recently learned that the "right" way to cook with raisins is to soak them in warm water for an hour or so ahead of time. This plumps up the raisin, and gives a much better end result.

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user Gudlyf