Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

 

I’ve been working on this recipe for some time now and think I have perfected it.  It’s a basic recipe but one of my favorites.  I’ve been using a spoon to dole out blobs of dough and just today I went out to find a 2 oz ice cream scoop to make production go a bit faster only to find that these gadgets are not cheap.  My quest is not over.  I’ll be checking into the grocery store since the usual suspects (Target, Marshalls, etc) were of no use, well, no economy.  I just want what I want and I want to pay $3.00 for it.

 

So on with the recipe.  You can substitute where ever you like.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar (the kind doesn’t matter as long as you cream the butter and sugar first)
1 large egg ( a second egg may be necessary)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup quick-cooking (1 minute) oats (I use the packets of instant organic oats I seem to pass up for the other flavored packets…they may not be appealing as a bowl of oatmeal but they rock as cookies…and the dried blueberries are an added surprise)
1 cup raisins or cranberries (I use Craisins made by Ocean Spray)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup flax seeds (adds that omega 3 so needed in our diets)
dark chocolate chips are good too….more antioxidants and falvonoids…and you thought these cookies were just a snack.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl (I use a kitchen aid mixer), cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla and spices. Slowly add in thirds of the dry goods with the mixer in low. You will have to scrape the sides with a spatula, however, this is a pretty dry mix.

Once no streaks of flour remain, stir in the goodies: oats, Craisins, flax seeds, chocolate,and even shredded carrots for a moister cake like cookie.

Drop tablespoonfuls of batter onto prepared baking sheets and flatten slightly (I use the 1/4c measuring spoon but you might have an ice-cream scoop that will work too…and if you do I am sooo jealous).

Bake for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are set and lightly browned on the edges. Cool for 3 or 4 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

TIP: Half way through baking, mash the cookies down with a spatula or bottom of a glass. This will give you a crunchy flat cookie and not the puffed lump that I ended up with the first time. Also, let them cool on the sheet. The sugar is molten when it comes out and will harden up on the sheet before transferring to a rack. I find they make it just fine into my mouth after they have cooled on the sheet. But go ahead and rack ’em.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Still working on this page…

Wow!!!  What I thought would take a few minutes has resulted in a few hours.  I am, however, having a lot of fun “trying on” a few of the themes that WordPress has to offer and I think I like this one the best.  Too bad it’s not a three-column format but this will be fine.  After all, there isn’t anything for anyone to read just yet so I should focus on content and not appearance.  I can’t leave my fans in suspense.

While I will be working on my entries, just know that my intent is to stimulate my own knowledge of many subjects and to take that “if you want to learn something then teach it” mentality to learning a few new things too.

So far I’ve learned a great deal about blogging and what doors it can open.  This should be a very interesting little experiment of mine.   Hope you enjoy it as much as I do putting it together.

Suzanne