Dinosaur Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 20 cookies
Dinosaur Oatmeal Cookies
As an anxious kid—who grew into an anxious adult—I found comfort in the constants of my life. I cherished daily rituals like checking on my Sea Monkeys (RIP), playing the same level of Shrek 2 on my Gameboy, and eating bowls upon bowls of Quaker Oats Dinosaur Oatmeal. Even better, making that oatmeal was easy enough for my five-year-old self to whip up, and hit the spot each and every time; I felt like a chef in my tiny kitchen.
What made the oatmeal truly special were the dinosaur eggs—sugar pods that held tiny hard candy dinosaurs, which revealed themselves when heated with water. It was the closest thing I knew to magic.
I loved it so much that I thought, why not turn it into a cookie? It seemed simple enough. But, dear reader, it was anything but. While making dinosaur oatmeal takes mere minutes, perfecting the oatmeal cookie recipe required three (!) different batches. Turns out, throwing the eggs into a batter doesn’t magically reveal eggs, but instead gloopy sugar pods that resemble wet puddles.
Though this recipe involves a few more steps than your typical oatmeal cookie, if you have a particular affinity for novelty, I assure you it's totally worth it (if you don’t, maybe check out one of my other recipes).
Ingredients
- 1 (14-ounce) box of Quaker Oats Dinosaur Oatmeal (the equivalent of 2 cups of oats)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon salt
Directions
- Brown the butter: Add your butter to a shallow saucepan over medium heat and stir as the mixture begins to melt. When bubbles start floating to the surface (about a minute in), begin whisking, and continue for the next five minutes or so as the milk solids brown and sink to the bottom. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Prepare the oats: Open and dump your oatmeal packets over a large bowl and separate the eggs from the oats; set the eggs in a mug with 1/2 cup of water and microwave for one minute to dissolve the sugar egg casing. Mix with a fork to dissolve the rest of the sugar. Strain and set aside. Run your oats through a sieve so excess sugar and other oatmeal fillers can run through leaving just the oats.
- Once the butter no longer hot to the touch, pour into a bowl and mix in sugar. Once combined, add eggs and vanilla and whisk to combine.
- Add in the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt and fold in until just combined; don't over mix; Place the dough in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment (or ideally a silicone baking sheet). Scoop roughly 2 tablespoons worth of dough and roll into balls and place them at least 3 inches apart on the baking sheet.
- Bake in total for 8 minutes, and then at the 10-minute mark, remove from oven and add on your little dinosaurs that you set aside. Place back in the oven and finish baking for 2 more minutes (any sooner and the dinosaur candies will melt and bleed into the cookie). Cool and enjoy!
