Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

After multiple slaps on the wrist from knowing readers for short-changing the oats in last week’s Oatmeal Cherry Cookies, I swore to follow the next cookie recipe in the Break from Cake chapter to a tee. One reader suggested doing some homework with Shirley O. Corriher’s “BakeWise.”

A cross between a cookbook and a chemistry textbook, I’d previously explored “BakeWise” when I baked the infamous Tunnel of Fudge Cake. I'd practically committed her chapter on cakes to memory! Upon re-visiting the book, Shirley has one very essential thing to teach me about cookies:

“...any change in ingredients that changes the available liquid in the dough changes the cookie. Here, more than anywhere else in baking, all problems are magnified -- the tiniest variation can totally change the cookie."

Translation: You wanna bake good cookies? Follow the flippin' recipe, lady!

I hear you loud and clear, Shirley. Thanks for the tip.

I had assembled all of my ingredients for this week’s Salty Oatmeal Cookies, including the appropriate amount of oatmeal and a couple of new ingredients making their debut appearance in “All Cakes Considered.”

Melissa Gray crafted her recipe for Salty Oatmeal Cookies in an attempt to re-create the “doughy, sweet, cinnamony, salty” cookie sold at a “snooty little high-priced Asian-esque eatery” she’d visited in Washington, DC. After baking four batches, the recipe for ho-hum oatmeal cookies evolved into an NPR staff favorite. The “secrets” of this recipe are:

Butter-flavored shortening: Shortening gives cookies that crumbly, light texture. Melissa says the taste got closer to the original cookie with Crisco’s butter-flavored shortening.

Rice flour: This was my first time using rice flour. It is essentially finely ground rice, and is commonly used in Asian desserts and shortbread recipes. I found rice flour at my local bulk food store, By The Pound.

Resting the dough: The oats are mixed with melted butter before they are added to the rest of the batter. I covered the finished dough with plastic wrap and stored it in the fridge for an hour. (It's okay to let the dough rest longer, too.) This is Mel’s technique for getting the oats to soak up all the flavor of the butter and the eggs.

Kosher salt: Each cookie got a generous sprinkling of salt before baking. You can substitute sea salt if you prefer its flavor.

Each tray of cookies baked for 15 minutes until it was puffed up and the edges were golden brown. The finished cookie was crisp around the edges and delectably chewy in the middle. The salty flavor immediately registered on my taste buds, followed by a subtle sweetness with just a hint of coconut and cinnamon thrown in. These cookies bend instead of break, and are so chock full of oatmeal they could pass for breakfast. (At least that's what I told myself as I gobbled them up with my morning coffee!)

The recipe for Salty Oatmeal Cookies can be found on the "You'll Eat It and Like It" blog.

Erin Mann is ruining diets one baked good at a time with her weekly baking exploits. Email her with baking tips, tricks or recipes at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter. Facebook users can also keep up-to-date with A CAKE A WEEK by joining the group.