Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks

“When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.” ~Laiko Bahrs

Last year at Christmastime, I had every intention of giving out homemade Christmas treats to all of my family and friends…yeah, that didn’t happen. It was my second to last semester of college and what comes to stomp out any Christmas spirit or plans that any college student may have hoped to have in December? Just a little thing called final exam week. It was perfectly scheduled just one week before the week of Christmas…really, it’s perfect isn’t it?…. :-/

This year I was sure it would be different. I didn’t have school, or final exams to worry about so I thought I would have all the time in the world to bake…wrong again! The weeks leading up to Christmas were some of the busiest I have ever experienced! We were out of town every weekend from Halloween until December 10th when we were both in our best friends’ wedding. The next weekend we were on a plane to Chicago to visit family for the holidays! So my resolution? New Year’s treats. I spent two whole days baking to my little heart’s content.

These beauties came from a recipe in my “Cuisine at Home: Holiday Cookies” magazine. And I know it’s February now, but can’t one enjoy awesome cookies anytime of the year? Besides the little ruby red gems called cranberries could totally be for Valentine’s Day too…Christmas doesn’t own the color red!

Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies with White Chocolate Chunks (Makes about 4 dozen 4-inch cookies)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract (the real stuff)

3 cups organic old-fashioned oats (not instant)

1 cup dried cranberries

6 oz. good-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Ghirardelli)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Stir flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl, set aside.

3. Cream butter, both sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl with a mixer or in the bowl of a standing mixer until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture; stir with a rubber scraper or wooden spoon until completely blended.

4. Fold the oats, cranberries and white chocolate into the dough until evenly distributed.

5. Drop dough in 3 Tbsp. mounds (a No. 40 cookie scoop is perfect) onto prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.

6. Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until golden but still a little moist. Let cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

*You can also the freeze portioned dough or baked cookies

Enjoy!