My family has been making and eating oatmeal jam squares for as long as I can remember. I’ve actually even blogged about them way back when I first started this food blog (and wasn’t all that great with the photo taking just yet).

Truth be told, these cookies are just too tasty not to talk about.
Problem is, they have a bit of an image problem.

You see, they’re not exactly the best looking cookie on the planet.

Sure, I could dress them up with a drizzle of white chocolate, or a sprinkle of powdered sugar, or.. something, I don’t even know how many different ways there are to dress up a boring cookie. The problem isn’t so much that there aren’t options, but that it just doesn’t seem right.

A boring sugar cookie can be enhanced by sprinkles or frosting, which add colour and flavour in addition to eye appeal, but I guess some cookies just don’t need embellishment. These cookies are just THAT good.

These cookies are so good, one bite and you’ll want to eat the whole batch. The smell left in the house once these cookies start baking is amazing. They’re versatile. You can make them completely vegan without altering the taste, texture or appearance. You can change the whole flavour profile of the cookie by changing the flavour of the filling. You can make them more healthy by adding wheat germ or chopped nuts or using a wheat flour blend, all without damaging the flavour of these delicious cookies.

Here is a re-post of the recipe-

Oatmeal Jam squares

2 1/2 cups rolled Oats
1- 3/4 cups flour (either all purpose or half all purpose, half wheat)
1 cup melted butter or margarine (you can make this recipe completely vegan if you use Earth Balance)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup jam, jelly, applesauce or mashed up fruit. ( I use raspberry, strawberry or apricot most often. You can also mix jam flavours, if you have odds and ends in your fridge!)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix everything but the jam together in a bowl.

Separate 2 cups of the mixture, press the rest of it into a 13×9in greased pan.

Spread the jam over that as evenly as possible. If the jam is especially thick, you may need to warm it up a bit in the microwave and pour it onto the bottom layer of the oat mixture.

Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture on top of the preserves. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the top of the cookie is golden brown. Cool. Cut into little squares.

Make sure you allow the cookie to cool COMPLETELY (about half an hour) before cutting it, or the result will be a big gooey mess that burns your tongue. I know this because I made them last winter and couldn’t hold myself back, so I spooned a bit into my mouth, burning my tongue and the roof of my mouth. The small piece of missing cookie caused the rest of the cookie to slide forward and turn into a big gooey problem. it still tasted good, but it was even less pretty than the cookies you see here.

Enjoy!

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 3:28 am and is filed under December 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.