One word: yum
These are my favorite Christmas cookies (yes, I have favorite cookies for different holidays, don’t judge me). I baked a batch for the boyfriend’s family on Christmas Eve, and even if I did overcook them a teeny tiny bit (they turned out brown and crispy which is fine but I was originally going for soft cookies), they tasted really good. I loved the sweetness of the white chocolate chips, the tartness of the cranberries, and the chewiness of the oatmeal. I loved the festive red and white colors. I loved that it still involves chocolate (even if some people don’t consider white chocolate to be real chocolate… but I do). And I loved that it was really easy to make hehe. I actually found a recipe from Ocean Spray (the Craisins brand), here it is below, copied directly from the site:
INGREDIENTS:
2/3 cup butter or margarine, 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 Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter or margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. 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.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack.
Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.
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I like following directions recipes because I am really a Type A follow the rules kinda girl like structure and taking the guesswork out of cooking (although sometimes it can be fun) but baking really requires exact measurements so I tend to like really simple, really easy cookie and brownie recipes (and if that somehow involves a boxed mix, so be it haha). This is how my cookies turned out:
sorry I don’t have any prettier photos
Anyway as I was researching recipes online, I found one for BRANDIED CRANBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES from Simply Recipes. It (simply) involves soaking the cranberries in brandy for an hour or so before baking the cookies. They will basically be drunken cookies. I predict they will be awesome so I’ll try to make them sometime soon – especially because I don’t like keeping bags of chocolate chips (even if they’re baking chips) in my apartment because someone has a hard time not eating them by the handful…
I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! I had a wonderful love-filled Christmas and I’m looking forward to another amazing year (a new decade)! May you all have a fantastic New Year filled with cookies, happiness, and love! ♥♥♥