I love the combination of oatmeal, cranberries and walnuts. And I real-ly love that combination in cookies. So this morning I pulled out the Kitchenaid, gathered the ingredients, and went to work.
I found a recipe I liked, but it needed some tweaking. See, we live at high altitude -- 7,522 feet above sea level -- and that can throw a monkey wrench (or a spatula) into the whole baking-from-scratch process. I've sat through enough "alas, the horrors of mountain baking" stories to know that success often comes through trial and error.
I have baked from recipes without making any changes and the results came out perfect. Like my go-to banana quick bread recipe.
Always a winner.
But this morning's cookie recipe was obstinate. It didn't want to cooperate. The first sheet out of the oven produced cookies like these.
Which is okay if you like thin, crisp cookies. But that's not what I was going for. I wanted fat, chewy cookies like these.
And that's what I got after adding more flour to the cookie dough. (Uh-huh, you can do that. . .even after you've added the final ingredients. Just mix it in with your wooden spoon.)
Here's a photo of the flat and the fat next to each other.
See the difference? Flat n' crispy vs. fat n' chewy.
Following is the high-altitude recipe. I've noted to decrease the flour to 1 cup if you're baking at low altitude.
High Altitude Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies
Yields 3 - 4 dozen cookies
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla
1-3/4 c. all-purpose unbleached flour (note: decrease flour to 1 c. at lower altitude)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2-3/4 c. old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c dried cranberries
1 c chopped shelled walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt in bowl and set aside.
Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar in large bowl on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and beat just until mixed in. Don't overmix. Stir in oats, cranberries and walnuts.
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 - 11 minutes, or until golden brown. Ovens and cooking times vary, so keep an eye on your cookies.
Cool on racks.
Sweet cranberries and crunchy walnuts with the wholesome goodness of oatmeal. Very tasty with coffee.
By the way, all is not lost with the flat, crispy cookies. Dennis took some to dunk in his coffee.
Here's lookin' at you kid.
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