Raisin Bar Cookies

 I recently received a few of my great-grandmother's recipes from my grandmother to try out. I knew I had to try her raisin bar cookie recipe first, because I haven't had them in years. I'm happy to say, this recipe turned out perfectly and they are just as delicious as they were when I was a kid. 

Raisin Bar Cookies

makes 24

2 cups water

1 cup raisins

1 stick margarine

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour (I used my whole-wheat flour)

Boil the water and raisins until one cup of the liquid remains (this took about 10-15 minutes). Add the stick of margarine, then remove from heat. Once it cools to room temperature, transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and add the baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar and mix until well combined. Then add half the flour, mix until well combined, and repeat with the other half of the flour. 

Grease a 9x12 cookie sheet, then spread the dough evenly in it. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer the cookie sheet to a cooling rack, allow to cool for a few minutes, then turn the cookie out of the sheet and allow to finish cooling. Otherwise, the cookies will sweat and get sticky. Once cool, cut the cookie into 24 equal sized bars. 

Pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy. These bars are just sweet enough to constitute a cookie, but the raisins and cinnamon give them a warm earthy flavor that almost makes them savory as well (which means it's totally fine to eat them for breakfast). Thanks, Grandma.