Well, it’s the holiday season yet again, which means my mom’s going to be spending the next couple of days baking up all of my family’s favorite sweet treats. She really does it all, from fresh fudge to cavity-inducing toffee, but the most beloved, nay coveted offering has to be the many varieties of delicious cookies. Eventually, I would like to share all of these recipes with you fine folks, but today I thought it would be best to talk about one of my favorites, oatmeal cranberry cookies. Yes, you read that right, oatmeal cranberry.
Now, typically my mother made the more traditional oatmeal raisin cookies every year, but, in all honesty, my father and I were never really big fans of them. However, one day she decided to swap out the raisins with dried cranberries and we have never looked back. Why? Well, it has to do with the simple fact that the flavor of raisins is one dimensional, they are just sweet. Dried cranberries, on the other hand, are sweet, tart, and earthy, bringing much more to the table than the simple raisin. So if you are not a huge fan of the traditional oatmeal raisin cookies, or are simply looking for a new way to change things up, then please give this recipe a try. I guarantee you will love them!
Ok, now let’s discuss a few tips, tricks, and suggestions concerning this recipe. First, when it comes to the dried cranberries you have two choices, sweetened or unsweetened. You see, dried cranberries are naturally less sweet than the typical raisin, which is why they typically have sugar added to them to make them more palatable. Unsweetened cranberries, on the other hand, are exactly what their name suggests, truly dried cranberries, with nothing added to them. My mother always uses the sweetened cranberries because they simply taste better, however, I thought I should at least inform you fine folks about unsweetened cranberries if you were looking for ways to make a slightly healthier version of these cookies. Secondly, I would like to suggest that you make as big of a batch of cookie dough as you possibly can, and freeze it. The current recipe will give you roughly 40 + cookies, however, my mother often will double the ingredients to make about 80+ cookies. Then whenever we want some cookies, all she has to do is defrost some of the cookie dough and bake up a smaller batch. Either way, the choice is yours. Ok, I think that’s about it, so let’s go and dive into the recipe.
Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies Recipe
Prep time: 15 -20 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes for each batch
Servings: 40+ cookies
Ingredients
2 Cups of all purpose flour
3 Cups of oatmeal
2 Cups of dried cranberries (sweetened or unsweetened)
¾ Cup of butter
¼ Cup of Crisco
1 Cup of granulated sugar
1 Cup of brown sugar
2 Eggs
2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
1 Teaspoons of baking powder
1 Teaspoons of baking soda
1 Teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- Cream the butter: Get out a stand mixer (or a large bowl and a hand mixer), and add to it the butter, the Crisco, and both types of sugar. Mix all of this up for about two minutes, and then add in the eggs, and vanilla extract. Keep mixing all of this together for another 3 minutes or until all of the ingredients are smooth and shows no visible chunks.
These are our wet ingredients, set them aside to be used later in the recipe.
- Mix together the dry ingredients: Get out another large bowl and place a mesh bottom sieve over it. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the sieve, and sift all of the ingredients through it and into the large bowl.
- Make the cookie dough: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches, making sure that they are properly mixed together. If you are using a stand mixer then simply turn the mixer on low, and add about a cup of the dry ingredients every 20 seconds, until you have incorporated all of the dry and wet ingredients together.
After you have incorporated the wet and dry ingredients together, the last step is to add both the oatmeal and the cranberries. Simply toss both ingredients into your bowl and lightly mix them in so that they are well dispersed throughout the cookie dough.
- Let sit: Separate the dough into large brick-sized pieces, and wrap each piece in aluminum foil.
Then place these either into your refrigerator for a day or into your freezer if you plan on baking these cookies at a later date. However, if you do place the cookie dough in the freezer, make sure to place it into your fridge for a day in order for the dough to defrost before using it.
- Bake: Take the cookie dough out of your refrigerator, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, get out a large cookie sheet, and start separating the cookie dough into balls about half the size of a golf ball. One easy way to do this is to use a melon baller, however, if you have thought of another easy way to do this, then by all means do it that way. Next place these balls of cookie dough out on your cookie sheet, making sure that they are placed at least 2 inches apart from each other. Then either take the palm of your hand, or a spatula, and slightly flatten out the balls of cookie dough, but make sure to not flatten them out completely.
Once you have filled up a cookie sheet in this manner, then stick it in your oven, and let it bake for 10 to 13 minutes.
After the cookies have been baked let them sit out on your kitchen counter for about 2 minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet.
- Serve & enjoy
Oatmeal Cranberry Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Cups of all purpose flour
- 3 Cups of oatmeal
- 2 Cups of dried cranberries sweetened or unsweetened
- ¾ Cup of butter
- ¼ Cup of Crisco
- 1 Cup of granulated sugar
- 1 Cup of brown sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 Teaspoons of Cinnamon
- 1 Teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 Teaspoons of baking soda
- 1 Teaspoon of salt
Instructions
- Cream the butter: Get out a stand mixer (or a large bowl and a hand mixer), and add to it the butter, the crisco, and both types of sugar. Mix all of this up for about two minutes, and then add in the eggs, and vanilla extract. Keep mixing all of this together for another 3 minutes or until all of the ingredients are smooth and shows no visible chunks. These are our wet ingredients, set them aside to be used later in the recipe.
- Mix together the dry ingredients: Get out another large bowl and place a mesh bottom sieve over it. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt to the sieve, and sift all of the ingredients through it and into the large bowl.
- Make the cookie dough: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches, making sure that they are properly mixed together. If you are using a stand mixer then simply turn the mixer on low, and add about a cup of the dry ingredients every 20 seconds, until you have incorporated all of the dry and wet ingredients together. After you have incorporated the wet and dry ingredients together, the last step is to add both the oatmeal, and the cranberries. Simply toss both ingredients into your bowl and lightly mix them in so that they are well dispersed throughout the cookie dough.
- Let sit: Separate the dough into large brick sized pieces, and wrap each piece in aluminum foil. Then place these either into your refrigerator for a day, or into your freezer if you plan on baking these cookies at a later date. However if you do place the cookie dough in the freezer, make sure to place it into your fridge for a day in order for the dough to defrost before using.
- Bake: Take the cookie dough out of your refrigerator, and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next get out a large cookie sheet, and start separating the cookie dough into balls about half the size of a golf ball. One easy way to do this is to use a melon baller, however if you have thought of another easy way to do this, then by all means do it that way. Next place these balls of cookie dough out on your cookie sheet, making sure that they are placed at least 2 inches apart from each other. Then either take the palm of your hand, or a spatula, and slightly flatten out the balls of cookie dough, but make sure to not flatten them out completely. Once you have filled up a cookie sheet in this manner, then stick it in your oven, and let it bake for 10 to 13 minutes.After the cookies have been baked let them sit out on your kitchen counter for about 2 minutes before removing them from the cookie sheet.
*If you liked these oatmeal cranberry cookies then check out our recipe for chocolate chip walnut cookies!
Inspiration from other blogs
From The View From Great Island
From Food and Wine
