I’ll confess to not being an overly huge fan of oatmeal cookies. Unless it’s this recipe. With chocolate chips. Or butterscotch chips. Something about fall requires oatmeal butterscotch cookies in my mind. Be warned this recipe makes a lot of cookies.
Making these cookies is an item on my small fall bucket list. Time to bake some oatmeal butterscotch cookies and cross an item of the list.
Also, it’s an older recipe from my late aunt’s cookbook. I make her chocolate pie from this cookbook and these cookies. 
These cookies are one of only 3 recipes I make that take the evil substance of shortening (I have no idea what would happen if you replaced the shortening with something else. However, here’s some information regarding the switch. I’ll stick with the shortening as I can’t bring myself to change up this recipe outside of adding the chips and adjusting the oatmeal a bit (see notes at end of recipe). Note if you are one of those weirdos who likes raisins in cookies, the recipe does say mix them in to heart’s content! I do like raisins, just generally not in my cookies.)
Famous Oatmeal Cookies
This is as written in my aunt’s cookbook. See my notes at end of recipe. 
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups oats, uncooked
Beat shortening, sugar, egg, water, and vanilla together until creamy. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture. Blend well. Stir in oats. Drop by spoonful on to greased cookie sheet.
Bake in preheated oven, 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Add chopped nuts, raisins, chocolate chips.
Makes 5 dozen. 
Recipe Notes:
- Just in case you don’t know, add the chopped nuts, raisins, or chocolate/butterscotch chips after adding the oats. Not after you’ve baked the cookies!
- I use grocery store brand oats and find it takes closer to 4 cups of oats to get the dough the consistency I prefer as those oats are a bit smaller.
- I use a mini muffin scoop for my cookie dough balls.
- do NOT skip the step where you grease the cookie sheet. They will stick if you do not.
- I bake my cookies for 11 minutes, know your oven, these aren’t very good burnt.
Final step, enjoy! They go good with a big glass of milk. And hey, if you eat them in the morning and call it breakfast (oatmeal, right?), I am not going to judge. Probably no worse than some of the cereal on the grocery store shelves. Let’s keep the raisins in the Raisin bran though. (It’s actually the current cereal of choice around these parts.)
Are you an oatmeal cookie fan? Do prefer them plain or with mix-ins like raisins, chocolate chips, or butterscotch chips?