Oatmeal raisin cookies

Everybody makes oatmeal raisin cookies.  But I want to make good oatmeal raisin cookies.  So here's an attempt at that.  Based on this recipe.

1/2 cup (8 tbsp) butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cup oats
2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
2/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 shot spiced rum
2 shots water

Mix raisins, rum, and water in a pot.  Put on medium low heat so it steams & smells delicious.  If I were doing this again, I'd only use 1 shot of water so more of the rum goes in the raisins, or I'd plan ahead enough to just soak the raisins in pure rum without heat.  Meanwhile, mix together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Mix together flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon in a big bowl.  Once the raisins have absorbed most of the liquid, drain them and mix everything together in the big bowl.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes or so, just until the bottoms start to brown a little.  Use a silpat so they don't stick and an airbake pan so they don't get crunchy.  They don't really change shape in the oven, so squish them into cookie-like shapes before baking.

Edit:
Another attempt, this one turned out great.  Based roughly on this and this.

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/8 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
a pinch of ginger
scant 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups oats
2/3 cup raisins, soaked in hot apple juice

Microwave some apple juice in a bowl until it's steaming.  Put in all the raisins (they should be covered) and set aside for a while.  In a smallish bowl, cream together butter & sugars.  Mix in egg & vanilla until well combined.  In the big mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients except the oats & raisins.  Barely combine the dry ingredients and the butter mixture; add oats, strain raisins (discard liquid) and add raisins.  Mix together & stick in the fridge for 15+ minutes.  Then form into balls and bake at 350 for about 6 minutes.  These ones also don't reshape much in the oven, so shape them accordingly before baking.

Cherry Almond Muffins

I wanted to make muffins this morning and hand to work with what was around the house.  This is what came out.  If I were doing it again, I'd want them to be slightly more moist (they were about the consistency of a cornmeal muffin -- slightly crusty outside, which was good, but also a slightly dry & crumbly inside once they cooled, which was less good), but otherwise they were very tasty.  The comments on the site suggested using sour cream or applesauce to make them more moist, so maybe I'll try those.  Based on this bread recipe.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries -- I used 1/4 cup whole and 1/4 cup chopped, and I liked the whole better
• 3/8 cup milk
• 1 eggs
• 3 Tbs. butter, melted
• 1 Tbs. oil (this was an attempt to make them moister, use all butter if you want)
• 1 tsp. almond extract 

Mix the four dry ingredients together.  Add the cherries & mix to cover them.  In a separate bowl, mix the 5 wet ingredients.  Pour them into the dry mixture and mix until just combined (mine had streaks of egg still in it and it was fine; next time I'll try mixing it even less, still trying to get the hang of the muffin mixing method).  Butter six muffin cups & split batter between them; if you want muffins with tops, butter only five muffin cups -- these don't rise very much, so you can fill the cups basically to the top.  Bake at 350 until a knife comes out clean from the middle (or just before that would happen) -- I don't remember how long this took, but it was somewhere between 20-40 minutes.