True to my Mediterranean heritage, when one wants to cheer oneself up from the lagging winter-ish doldrums, one eats. (Or cooks, then eats. That's on ambitious days. Or on days when one has no ready made treats to indulge in because one has not made it to one's grocery store in several days. I'm annoyed with one.)
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cranberry Walnut Cookies
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/4 cups of flour
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
My view on cookies is that they should be like junk drawers. You should cram into them as much stuff as is humanly possible. So where two main ingredients would normally do, I made sure to have twice as much.
At first I wasn't quite sure what the mystery fourth ingredient should be, but seeing as the outdoors thinks it's fall again, I decided to use a common autumn fruit to liven up a standard oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. The tart and chewy cranberry was to be a last minute guest to the party. (I say "party" as I'm a no makeup, hoodie wearing shut in on a work from home day with no desire to leave the house until sun up. Did I mention I have on these obnoxious lime green stripped socks with lemons on them? It's best I don't have a web cam.)
So, oatmeal, chocolate chips, walnuts and dried cranberries were all going into this little package. But without brown sugar, where would we be, I ask you? (No place I'd wanna hang out.)
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| Equal billing for all. |
Before I get too far, I must tell you what gave me the idea to make these cookies. It was very practical. Left over ingredients from previous postings. I had oats from making the Anzac biscuits a few months ago, chocolate chips left over from the cookie dough truffles, extra cranberries from the sweet potato casserole and walnuts from something I haven't actually posted. I knew I needed to use this stuff up and with my kitchen sink philosophy, I figured it all would taste pretty great together.
First, the dry ingredients went into a good sized bowl.
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| Make sure to get the right oats or your cookies will be unchewable. |
I added in the chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts. (And took a picture while it was still looking lovely.)
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| Pretty much granola at this point. |
On top of that went the less attractive baking soda and flour.
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| Remember in "Close Encounters" when the guy is obsessed with building the mashed potato pile? That's what this looked like! Ooh, creepy. |
Into another bowl, a larger one, I put in the wet ingredients and the sugar. Softened butter, eggs, baking soda, salt, vanilla and brown sugar. Then stirred it lightly with a spoon to get it going.
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| Only two bowls, easy cooking. |
Out came the hand mixer because I wanted well blended butter and to fluff up those eggs. A little air beaten into the batter will make the cookies light and airy.
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| Ooey and gooey. Two of my favorite words. |
I added the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and then used the wooden spoon to blended them well. It will be a little challenging, because the batter is pretty much like cement, but with some elbow grease, it all bends to your powerful will and comes together.
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| Looks evenly distributed to me. |
The easiest way to scoop up into all equal cookies is to use a scooper. This is a smaller one, but you can make the cookies any size you'd like.
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| Super fast, uniform cookie measuring. |
I filled each scoop to a bit overflowing and then placed them about two inches apart on a couple cookie sheets lined with Silpats. (You have to buy some. They are about $20.00 - $25.00 each, but you use them over and over and they prevent your cookies from burning and sticking. That is SO worth the initial parting with your cash.) I lightly patted them down a little flatter before putting them into the oven.
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| Looking delicious already. |
Into a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until the edges and bottoms brown. It made about three dozen cookies. (Just one shy, truth be told.) The first two sheets went in on the two racks. For even cooking, I turned them around and changed racks five minutes in. Not sure if I really needed to, but it felt like the right thing to do.
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| Who doesn't like a lumpy-bumpy cookie? |
On to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. (In theory. Because I couldn't wait for them to cool before chomping into one.)
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| The grid cooling racks are nice because the hot cookies don't bend and fall through the rungs. |
I topped off my scrumptious, warm, gooey cookie with a glass of cold So Delicious coconut milk. Because I'm lactose intolerant, I have to get creative and explore other milk-like options. This was the latest purchase I made. I liked it, but think I prefer rice milk best. (Have yet to try almond milk. How does one milk any of these non-cow items anyway?)
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| It's no real glass of milk, but hey, no intolerable side effects of disaster works for me! |
I planned on eating just one. But really now, right out of the oven, warm and chewy - irresistible! That mandates a two cookie eating minimum.
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| This is why you want to cram a bunch of stuff in there. |
My friend just IMed me. It's hailing at her house 40 minutes west of here. Ugh. It's almost April! Guess I'll have to hunker down with my cold coconut milk and maybe just one more cookie. (Well, they won't be warm forever now will they.)
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