Oatmeal Caramel Emergency Cookies

Oatmeal and caramel on hand-glazed stoneware. What's not to love?

The other day, we got stressed out by a basketball game. The Nuggets snatched a narrow victory out of the jaws of a certain victory against the Charlotte Hornets—they were up by 22 at the half and won by 3 only after a 7-point run in the last 40 seconds. I wound up baking, inventing a recipe out of thin air and the contents of our cupboard. They came out good, and my wife named them:

Oatmeal Caramel Emergency Cookies

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

Note: all measurements are approximate. I did not measure, but just poured things in on intuition:

• About 1 cup white flour
• About ½ cup whole wheat flour
• About 1 ½ cups oatmeal
• Maybe 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• About ¾ tsp baking powder
• About ½ to ¾ tsp salt

Creamed ingredients:

• About 1 ½ cups of Granulated sugar
• About ¾ cup of Brown sugar (Splenda blend)
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 egg
• A healthy splash of Mexican vanilla

On top:

• Caramel topping (Zero sugar OK)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 360°F.
2. Soften 2 sticks of butter in a large mixing bowl.
3. Cream in the white sugar.
4. Add a healthy splash of Mexican Vanilla.
5. Add 1 egg.
6. Cream in the brown sugar.
7. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients:
8. Blend the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
9. Add oatmeal to adjust the consistency to a thick cookie dough thickness.
10. Spread a very thin layer of oatmeal on a cookie sheet.
11. Form the cookie dough into balls about 1 ½ inch round. Push a deep thumbprint into each one.
12. Place on top of the thin layer of oatmeal, a good couple of inches apart.
13. Squirt a dollop of caramel topping into each thumbprint.
14. Bake 12 to 14 minutes at 360.