Yield: dozens of cookies ahead

So when you decide to make cookies, before you do anything else, read the yield.

As in the part of the recipe that tells you how many cookies the batter you make will produce. Because last night I decided to make some cookies (oatmeal with pomegranate jelly) and was halfway through the batter before I noticed this all-important number.

You'd think that after preparing and beginning to make a batter that calls for two sticks of butter and three cups of flour that I'd realize there would be a serious amount of cookies resulting, but no. I thought it was a little odd, but not extraordinary. But then I looked at the yield, after creaming said two sticks of butter into two kinds of sugar: 4 1/2 to 5 dozen cookies.

SIXTY COOKIES? WTF!

In for a penny, in for a pound (of butter, it felt like). So I soldiered on. And the cookies actually turned out really well. Yes, I was in the kitchen for like two hours, but once things turned into an assembly line sort of system, it really wasn't so bad.

Here's something I discovered. I only own two cookie sheets, and for this particular recipe, I could fit 12 cookies on a sheet. So I baked one sheet at a time, and after removing the cookies, I put the hot, empty sheet in the fridge for a few minutes while the second sheet baked. This cooled the sheet to room temperature so that I could add more dough to the sheet. (You should never put raw dough on a hot cookie sheet, because it'll melt the fats in your dough and mess it up.) After refrigerating, I was also able to scrub off any jelly spills with a wet paper towel. This made the baking process go much faster because I didn't have to wait for each sheet to cool for who knows how long before proceeding.

Here's the recipe. It originally called for raspberry preserves, but I had a jar of pomegranate jelly in my kitchen that just wasn't getting used up (it's not terribly compatible with peanut butter), so I used that instead. And please note that it really does make like 60 cookies or so. They are small cookies, and yummy, so that shouldn't be a bad thing.

Oatmeal and Jelly Cookies
4 1/2 to 5 dozen

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter (two sticks), softened
1/2 cup water
1 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose/unbleached flour
2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
fruit preserves, jam, or jelly (I really think any flavor will work!)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.

Add water, almond extract, and eggs and blend well. The mixture will look curdled and watery.

Stir in the flour, oats, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix well. The mixture will thicken and look lumpy

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. With a spoon, make an imprint in the center of each cookie and fill the imprint with 1/2 teaspoon of preserves. Drop a bit of dough over the preserves on each cookie.

Bake for 6 to 9 minutes until the cookies are a light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets and allow to cool on a rack.