#44: Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

In an effort to broaden my fall baking horizons, I spent some time scouring the internet and my mother's cooking magazines to find a treat that contained ingredients OTHER than pumpkin. For Thanksgiving this year, I wanted to bake more than one dessert, and this is the first I chose to make. Inspired by my FAVORITE Starbucks pastry of ALL TIME, I found this recipe in one of my mother's TASTE OF HOME magazines, and knew I needed to give it a shot. Although I love cranberries, I'm not one to want to dump a ton of cranberry sauce on my plate at Thanksgiving and eat it straight like that. This incorporates one of my favorite "healthy" snacks and makes it a little LESS so...

#44: Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies (as found in Taste of Home magazine. The recipe was actually on a recipe card in an Ocean Spray ad, which says it can be found at Oceanspray.com)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 6-ounce package Craisins original dried cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well.

2. Combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks.

3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
     - Teaspoonfuls? No, no, no, momma likes a BIG cookie. Try tablespoonfuls. And yet, the cookies still turned out pretty small.

THAT'S IT. I'm under the impression these days that once you make ONE kind of cookie, you can more or less make any kind of cookie. This recipe was a QUICK one too. I think the prep work was done in 10 minutes, and the baking in about 40, so you could whip these cookies out FAST. Be forewarned though- this isn't nearly as sweet as most of my other creations are. My instincts are telling me I want to add more sugar or white chocolate chips or SOMETHING to them, but my dad is insisting they taste just fine the way the are. Try them!! OH, and the very happiest of Thanksgivings to you and yours!

I NEVER claimed to be a photographer... but check out my sparkly, festive Thanksgiving nail polish!