Emma Bull says this cookie can thwart the powers of darkness; I say it tastes pretty darn good.

This began as a recipe from the back of a Quaker Oats box, but it’s evolved over the years, and Quaker Oats, for reasons known only to them and their God, have switched to an inferior recipe. Evil does walk the Earth.

3/4 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

1/8 cup apple juice (or water, if you’re as boring as Quaker Oats)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 cups uncooked rolled oats

1 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 — 1/2 cup coconut (optional, but nice)

1 bag (12 or 16 oz.) Guitard’s (my favorite, but you can use similar deluxe) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup raisins

1 cup almonds, pecans, and/or walnuts (sliced or chopped)

Preheat oven to 350 degree F.

Beat the butter, sugar, honey, egg, juice, and vanilla together until creamy.

Combine the oats, flour, salt, soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate bowl, then mix them with the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips, raisins, coconut, and nuts to the batter last.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Eat some of the batter while the first batch is cooking. You’re the cook; you deserve it.

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I once got a great fan mail for these cookies:

I tweaked the recipe a bit; I believe we had apple cider rather than apple juice, so I figured I’d give that a shot. I also tossed in toffee bits and white chocolate chips.

The cookies went over rather well. I believe the technical term for what happened to them is “inhaled”. And they resulted in one of my favorite compliments of all time. Since the main credit goes to you, I hereby pass it on:

“Tracey! These cookies could bring world peace!”

There followed a brief discussion of the possibilities of dropping cookies on miniature parachutes over various war zones.

This recipe is astonishingly forgiving. You can add anything you love and leave out just about anything you don’t, and it’ll be swell.

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I found a tweaked version at String Notes: Cookie nomnomnom. I especially like adding the cocoa nibs. And I like that this has become an open source recipe. That’s the fate of all good recipes.