Make-Up Cookies

I have failed you and I am sorry. I was so excited for the first yoga Monday post yesterday. I wanted to do a post-workout/run stretching video and that turned into a giant mess involving the video cutting off halfway through, a second video that I was going to merge with the first, over 200 minutes of upload time on YouTube (because my cameral shoots HD video) and then realizing that where it cut off and where I started back didn’t match up at all…blah, blah, blah. The end result is that I need to film it again for you today. Yay!

In the meantime I’m going to make it up to you with cookies. But first, here’s a look at some of the things I’ve been eating lately.

Plain Greek yogurt, banana, a mix of museli and granola and sunflower seed butter.

Bringing back the sandwiches for lunch. Boar’s Head Salsalito Turkey, avocado, mayo, spinach, tomatoes and muenster on sourdough.

For whatever reason, I have been craving meatloaf. I planned on making my favorite Mozzarella and Spinach Stuffed Chicken Meatloaf but decided to get creative and try a different variation. I ended up doing a spinach and feta chicken meatloaf and it turned out great. The leftovers have been even better. Meatloaf isn’t the prettiest thing to photograph but let me know if y’all want me to type up the recipe for you and I will.

I come to you with a peace offering. I thought these were the best cookies I have ever baked but I was wrong. These cranberry, white chocolate, dark chocolate oatmeal cookies win. The oatmeal/cranberry/white chocolate combo is one of my favorites and I was in the mood to bake cookies with these ingredients on Sunday afternoon. As I was researching recipes online, I came across this recipe on foodnetwork.com from Giada that was very highly rated. I decided to give it a go and I am so happy that I did.

These cookies are big, full of cranberries and chocolate and thick in the center. You use an ice cream scoop to portion the dough out into big balls. The whole recipe only made 14 cookies but I LOVE the big cookies for a change. They reminded me more of a bakery cookie than a homemade if that makes any sense. This would be an awesome base recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too. I modified the original recipe by adding white and dark chocolate chips as well as a handful of toasted walnuts. This will definitely become a staple recipe for me.

Oatmeal, Cranberry and Chocolate Cookies
(Recipe heavily adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients: 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup toasted walnuts or pecans

Special equipment: 4-ounce (1/2 cup) ice cream scoop (or can just roll 1/2 cup dough into rounds)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two baking sheets by lining with a Silpat or or parchment paper and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy and lightened in color, about 1-2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until smooth.

Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the oats, cranberries and chocolate and nuts. Mix until just incorporated. The dough will be really stiff. Using the ice cream scoop, scoop slightly rounded mounds of the dough balls. You should have anywhere from 12-15 balls. Arrange on prepared cookie sheets and space them evenly apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are slightly golden on the edges but still soft in the center. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet or transfer parchment paper to wire racks.

Yield: 12-15 cookies

Enjoy! Have a good day and I hope you forgive me! 🙂