Zucchini Oatmeal Cookies

Since most of my baking is eaten by my 2.5 year old, I'm always looking for recipes that are tasty and somewhat healthy as well.  I was going to make some oatmeal raisin cookies from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook, and then remembered I had made them before and they were rather crunchy.  I'm more of a chewy cookie kind of gal, so I searched for a recipe that uses zucchini since I had already bought some and probably won't use it for anything else.

I found a recipe from cooks.com that sounded promising.  My number one chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from cooks.com so I'm always willing to give their recipes a try.  I halved the recipe since it seems rather large, and I don't need that many cookies in the house since my sweet tooth tends to peak at 2pm.  I didn't make any changes to the recipe, I usually follow a recipe precisely the first time and experiment from there.  If I made these again I would probably use whole wheat flour and cut a bit of the sugar out.  I find any recipe that contains either raisins or chocolate chips can stand to have the sugar reduced or they end up way too sweet.

The final verdict?  They're kind of ugly.  And a bit too cakey for my liking, but Mike really enjoyed them.  You may think I'm rather vain to take a cookie's looks into account, but I find eating (especially sweets) to be a experience for all the senses.  As you can see in the picture, they have an undercooked look to them, which despite my love of cookie dough isn't that appealing.  And they're not undercooked, just the parts around the zucchini ended up rather mushy, had I baked them for longer they would have ended up dry, and there is nothing worse than a dry cookie.  Flavour-wise, they're good.  Cinnamon and raisins are a match made in heaven, and this recipe has plenty of both.  But next time I think I'll leave the zucchini for muffins.

ZUCCHINI OATMEAL COOKIES 
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,191,137189-233200,00.html

1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. zucchini, grated
3 1/2 c. oatmeal
1 c. raisins, optional
1 c. nuts, optional

Beat butter and sugar together well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients together and add creamed mixture. Stir in zucchini, oatmeal, raisins and nuts. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.