Olive Oil Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cranberries

I know what you are thinking. “What?! Joann is not fattening us up with butter in her cookies like always?” No worries. I made these more out of curiosity rather than trying to be more health conscious. And actually, these were not bad at all. They turned out sweet, savory and moist all in one.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries (or dried cherries or raisins)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Meanwhile line baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Mix together olive oil, brown sugar, vanilla and eggs in a large mixing bowl until blended.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, cloves and nutmeg.
4. Add flour mixture, rolled oats and dried cranberries to olive oil mixture.
5. Drop in tablespoon balls on prepared baking sheets.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
7. Let cool at least 3 minutes before transferring to baking rack to completely cool.
8. This recipe yielded 32 cookies. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today I took my mom grocery shopping. On an empty stomach. Bad decision. Whatever delicious smelling concoction they were making in the bakery department left an everlasting craving for something sweet in me all day. Good thing I was shopping with my mom and not alone. My growling stomach would have led me to load up the cart with all sorts of goodies!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 3/4 cups rolled oats (I used quick cooking oats)
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.
2. Prepare your baking pans with parchment paper or silicone baking sheets.
3. Add hot water to cover your 1 cup of raisins to plump them up. Drain any excess water after 5 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and stir until fluffy.
5. In a small bowl stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture. ( About 1/3 of the flour mixture at a time.)
6. Continue stirring until all the flour mixture is incorporated.
7. Next stir in the oatmeal, raisins and chocolate chips.
8. Roll dough into tablespoon sized balls onto prepared baking pans.
9. Bake 8 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Let cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to completely cool.
10. This cookie dough made 3 dozen plus cookies for me. You can probably get 4 dozen out of it because you make your cookies uniform.