Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies from Sally's Baking Addiction

Iced Gingerbread Oatmeal Cookies - made dough January 22, 2023 from Sally's Baking Addiction 

2 cups (170 grams) old-fashioned oats

1 2/3 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1/4 cup unsulfured dark molasses

Icing

1 1/2 cups (180 grams) sifted confectioners sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons milk

small pinch each ground cinnamon and ground cinnamon plus extra cinnamon for garnish if desired

1. Pulse the oats in a food processor 10-12 times. In a medium bowl, whisk together pulsed oats, flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl as needed.
3. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 2-3 additions, mixing on low speed after each addition. Cover an chill the dough for 30 minutes then scoop into dough balls. Cover and chill dough balls an additional 2-3 hours or overnight. 
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Evenly space dough balls, 3 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake 12-13 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
6. Make the icing: combine confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon milk in a medium bowl. Whisk to combine, adding extra milk to make a very thick icing. Whisk in very small pinch of cinnamon and ginger. Add enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over cooled cookies and lightly sprinkle with ground cinnamon if desired.

As you can see from the pictures, despite the title, I didn't ice these. I never ice, frost or glaze any baked goods going overseas in military care packages because I can't risk the packages not getting to their destinations before the dairy-based icing goes bad. I did include the recipe though in case anyone else wants to glaze these cookies.

Recipes from Sally's Baking Addiction are pretty reliable in that they'll turn out well. This was no exception.

With oatmeal cookies, I recommend portioning the dough into dough balls as soon as the dough is mixed, covering then chilling in the refrigerator at least overnight. This lets the flour and oats absorb the liquid more fully, especially if you're using old-fashioned oats instead of quick oats. And I always use old-fashioned oats as they're a tad less processed than quick oats. After refrigerating overnight, I put the dough balls into a ziploc freezer bag and froze them until I was ready to bake them.

Because of the color, it may be hard to tell if these are done. I timed these and baked about 12-14 minutes in my oven. That's baking from frozen dough as they went straight from my freezer to the oven. The top side may not look done but you can see from the bottom that they are. The color below is baking on parchment paper on a light-colored Nordic Ware baking sheet.

Lastly, do I even need to mention these were quite good? Like I said, Sally's Baking Addiction recipes typically are. If you like ginger molasses cookies, these are good ones, amped up with oatmeal. I think icing them would be a nice touch but I can vouch that they're also delicious when eaten plain.