Raspberry Oatmeal Jammies/Copycat Franz Bakery Raspberry Oatmeal Cookies

The only packaged cookie I have ever liked other than Oreos or some of the Pepperidge Farm ones is these lightly cinnamon flavored, raspberry jam filled oatmeal cookies from Franz Bakery.  I would buy about a pack a year, so it wasn't exactly a common indulgence.  One day, it occurred to me to try to make them, I did a Google search, and ta da!  Oatmeal Jammies from the blog Bake or Break!  I made them immediately, with a few fiddly little changes to the ingredient list and preparation.

Boy, are these good!  Undoubtedly better than the packaged ones.  They are chewy around the edges but soft in the middle, are a little caramelized from the dark brown sugar, have way more raspberry jam than the packaged ones, and have that perfect little hint of cinnamon. They're best the day they're made because the chewiness dissipates and the jam may start getting a wee bit soggy, but they're tasty regardless a couple of days later.

I've only made these once, but can tell they for sure will be made many more times.  Next time I'm going to experiment with adding a teaspoon of baking powder just to see if they'll puff up a bit more, but really, they're pretty perfect as is!

Raspberry Oatmeal Jammies

1 C salted butter, softened
1 C dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 C old fashioned oats
about 1/2 C raspberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy, then beat in eggs and vanilla extract.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and cinnamon.  Mix into butter-sugar mixture in 3 additions.  Add oats and mix just until everything is completely combined.

Make walnut sized dough balls and place them 2 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets- this dough spreads come.  Use your thumb to make an indentation in each dough ball.  Don't press too hard because you want a cookie layer thick enough under the jam that the jam won't seep through!  You can kind of shore up the dough around the indentation to keep the jam contained.

Spoon about a teaspoon of jam into each thumbprint.

Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, about 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven.  They are a bit fragile, so let them cool for 20 minutes or so before moving them to cooling racks.

Yield:  About 2 dozen cookies