Thursday, July 02, 2009

Best Oatmeal Cookie Recipe Ever...Sorry Grandma!

We all have a favorite, for most of you it's the Chocolate Chip Cookie (best recipe for that some other time!), for me though, hands down my fave is the Oatmeal Cookie. I've tried and tried some really great recipes over the years, and some huge flops, one even melted right off the cookie sheet and burnt in the bottom of my oven, yike! This time, I decided to reach very deep for some culinary inspiration and go it alone. The basis for every Oatmeal Cookie is pretty much the same for every recipe, so I didn't exactly reinvite it or anything, just changed it up and put my little mark on it :)

White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

1/2 cup unsalted butter, browned
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 Tbs pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground clove
3 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2-2 cups dried cranberries (Craisins)
1 white chocolate bar (high quality is best), chopped
1/2 cup walnuts chopped (optional)

1. Beat eggs and vanilla in a small mixing bowl, add dried cranberries. Allow cranberries to rehydrate for at least one hour, stirring occasionally. Do not skip this step!
2. Brown 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cool in the refrigerator while you wait for the cranberries to finish plumping up.
3. Preheat oven to 350 F
4. Cream butters and sugars with mixer, stand mixer is best as you should cream for about 2-3 minutes. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, kosher salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and clove. Slowly add your dry ingredients into your cream mixture, scraping sides of bowl as needed, making sure there are no dry patches, but do not over mix. Add in your egg/cranberry mixture, mix on low until just combined.
5. Using a wooden spoon, mix in oats, combining well. Fold in your chocolate and nuts.
6. Refrigerate your dough for about 5-10 minutes
7. Spoon small-medium sized balls onto wax paper covered cookie sheets. Bake cookies for approximately 12 minutes, turning once during cooking. Cookies are done when they are light brown and begin to lose their glossy look. I recommend baking them 1 sheet at a time!
Allow to cool for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire wrack. Yields: Approximately 30 good sized cookies.

brown butter: Cook butter over medium heat until it turns brown and foams, about 3-5 minutes, whisking frequently.

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4 comments:

msmeanie said...

I am totally craving oatmeal cookies and these looks SO GOOD! I love the browned butter idea -- I never thought of that. Sounds like it would be delicious! Thanks!

Angela [YourEverydayMama] said...

If you want them a little less sweet, just leave out the chocolate...I think next time I'm going to make them with dried cherries!

LyciY said...

These are so good!!!! I've made a batch for my class also as a present!! Thanks for the great recipe!!!

If you want you can check out this Millies Cookies Recipe I found in a cookbook, they are very nice too if you like cookies, here's the link: http://lycikitchen.blogspot.com/2009/06/millies-cookies-chocolate-chip.html

Thanks again!! Way better than my Grandma, she never cooks!!

LYCI xx

Angela [YourEverydayMama] said...

So glad you liked them Lyci :) Those cookies and the Lemon Cake look great!