Butterscotch Delights

The brown sugar does all the flavor work here. Combined with vanilla and baked until the edges go golden, these oatmeal cookies deliver that deep, toffee-like butterscotch taste without needing any butterscotch chips or extract.

Quick oats give these cookies their chewy texture without the heavy, granola-bar density of old-fashioned rolled oats. They blend right into the batter and practically disappear, leaving behind a soft chew.

Drop them by the teaspoon, not the tablespoon. These spread during baking, and oversized dough balls will run together into one giant cookie sheet-sized blob.

Pro Tips

• Pull the cookies at 8 minutes if you want chewy centers. They’ll look slightly underdone on the sheet but firm up as they cool. At 10 minutes you get a crunchier cookie throughout.
• Cream the shortening and sugars until the mixture looks pale and fluffy. Shortening takes longer to cream than butter, so give it a solid 3 to 4 minutes.
• Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before moving them to a wire rack. They’re fragile right out of the oven.

Variations

• Fold in butterscotch chips for double the butterscotch punch.
• Add chopped pecans or walnuts with the oats for nutty crunch.
• Swap half the white sugar for an extra half cup of brown sugar for an even deeper caramel flavor and chewier texture.