Chocolate Chunk Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Last month I returned from a visit with my family in Utah.  It was an excellent trip.  I saw siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews, and extended family.  I was reminded of a few family traditions.

I was home over Labor Day.  Every Labor Day my extended family on my mother's side goes to a picnic area and roasts hotdogs and makes s'mores.  Everyone brings more food than we could possible eat in one day.  We always do a hike after eating to an overlook.  We try to see those who remained at the picnic area from the overlook.

We also eat a trail mix called bird seed.  I'm not sure of its origin.  It is made with Lucky Charms cereal, salted peanuts, raisins, and at least two types of M&Ms.  I always strategically grab handfuls with lots of M&Ms.

Another family tradition is making cookies on sundays.  When I was growing up, we would make cookies most sundays.  It's amazing none of us have diabetes!  When I was home, I made cookies at my sister's home on sunday.  We made an oatmeal cranberry cookie, much like this one.

 

This recipe came from food.com.  My sister's recipe came from a cookie cookbook.  Both called for white chocolate chips.  We replaced the white chocolate chips with semi-sweet because no one in my family prefers white chocolate.  It was a wise substitution.

The ingredients are 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 large egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cups oats, 3/4 cup dried cranberries, and 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks.  I used chocolate chunks.

I measured the softened butter and sugars into a bowl.

I mixed the sugars and butter together until they were lighter in color.  I added the egg and mixed well.

I added the vanilla extract and stirred vigorously, but not too vigorously.  Let's say I stirred enthusiastically.  

I added the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and flour.

I stirred until everything was well combined.  I then added the oats, dried cranberries, and chocolate chunks.

I folded all the ingredients together.  This photo is a bit out of focused.

I spooned equally sized mounds of dough onto a greased cookie sheet.  The instructions say the mounds should be one inch in diameter and there should be three inches of space between the mounds.

I baked the cookies for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  I'm always surprised when the baking temperature is not 350 degrees.

I let the cookies cool for a minute or two on the pan before transferring them to a wire rack where they finished cooling completely.

These were just as delightful as the ones I made with my sister, though I missed the good company.

I enjoyed the chewy oats and cranberries.  I don't know why so many cranberry oatmeal cookie recipes call for white chocolate.  I think the bitter semi-sweet chocolate is a better match with the sweet cranberries.

 The cookies are soft and fragrant.  They are exquisite, flavorsome cookies that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I give this recipe my ringing endorsement! Yum!