Monday, February 07, 2011

Cranberry & Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

These cookies were inspired by the idea behind The Kitchn's Gluten Free Cherry and Walnut Cookies but in the end, it is nothing like them at all. For one thing, I like to squish my cookies so they aren't as fat as the ones pictured in that post. This means that my 1/4 cup measure makes for a hefty cookie, which really should be about 4 little cookies (which I have made as well, you can alter the size to your liking). The recipe above also had a lot of different flours and no chocolate and xanthan gum and all sorts of things that are hard to find here in Britain. My favorite thing about these cookies is that the brown sugar turns into a caramel as you bake them (sometimes I leave chunks in on purpose so as to have even more caramelly cookies). So--here is my, pretty much entirely invented by myself but inspired by the recipe above, recipe...



Recipe:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (to give it some richness, can just use regular flour)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup pecans (or any other favorite nut)
1 cup dried cranberries (you could try it with any favorite dried fruit)
8 oz white chocolate chips (I find this is a nicer, lighter flavor than milk or dark chocolate which compliments the cranberries well)
3/4 cup unsalted butter (again, for a nice sweet flavor--keeps out the saltiness)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I prefer the dark brown as it makes a richer caramel, but light brown works just as well)
1 large egg or 2 small eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 176C and line the cookie sheets with parchment or wax paper
2. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside
3. Mix in another bowl oats, pecans, cranberries, and chocolate
4. Cream together sugar, butter, and eggs
5. Mix in the flour mixture to the cream mixture slowly, then add the oats
6. Scoop into 1/4 cup (or smaller) portions and put on the baking sheet, I like to press them, but if you like a super think cookie, don't press
7. Bake for around 12 minutes until they look cooked around the edges and undercooked in the middle (may need to add or subtract time depending on your oven)
8. Take out of the oven and let cool on trays, then detach from paper and cool on racks

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