I have long been accused of not being able to leave well enough alone, and that's certainly true with this cookie.
While others may cling to the simplicity of shortbread or sugar cookies, I continue to be a big fan of taste sensations that don't necessarily taste the same the whole way through.
Admittedly, much of this recipe is Quaker Oatmeal's recipe for Oatmeal cookies, which is the most tender, scrumptious recipe I've come upon for them.
However, in my continuing quest for a more interesting flavor mix, I added white chocolate chips and dried Cranberries.
The White chocolate provides a dense, sweet background to the cookie, while the cranberries, which are most often found packaged after having been soaked in a sugar solution, explode in bursts of sweet/tart jeweled goodness. Mixed with the cinnamon laced goodness of these delicious, chewey cookies, it's the kind of snack that will have people begging you to make cookies for work. You may have to get a gun.
The ingredients:
2 Sticks of butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar. Light or Dark to your preference.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (can be real or imitation)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups oats
1 bag of dried cranberries
half a bag of white chocolate chips
Admittedly, I usually make these in double batches.
To make, combine as follows. Put the dry ingredients (oats, flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cranberries, chips) in a large bowl and mix them together well so that everything gets well coated with flower. If you're a stickler about such things you may way to sift the flour, salt, baking sodea, and cinnamon first, but I've never found that it affects things much.
In a separate bowl, mix the butter, eggs, vanilla, and sugars. You can try for light and fluffy if it really floats your boat, but once again, I've never seen it make that much of a difference.
Pour the liquid over the dry stuff and fold it in. The temptation may arise to fold it in with the scraper, but this stuff is heavy, and you'd be better off switching to a wooden spoon for this bit unless your scraper is one of those heavy duty dragon-fighting models from KitchenAid or what-not.
Heat the oven to 350 F, and grab little balls of oatmeal cookie out of the bowl and put them on the cookie sheet. I usually make them about an inch in diameter, and leave them about an inch to an inch and a half apart on the cookie sheet.
A note for rolling: When you create these little balls, it's best to have your hands wet, either from a bowl of water, or from the sink. You'll need to rewet them every 8 balls or so, otherwise your hands get too dry, and the oatmeal becomes tacky and difficult to roll neatly.
Bake for 10 minutes, then whip them out and let them set on a baking rack.
Serve immediately hot to your loved ones and those you wish to enslave.