Oatmeal-Cranberry-Orange Cookies
Fans of chewy oatmeal cookies will love this version, studded with sweet, tart cranberries, and orange zest for a bright citrus note. Browned butter adds rich, nutty, and slightly caramelized flavor with a touch of cinnamon to round out the flavor and pair with wholesome oats.
Servings: 25 cookies
Equipment
- microplane zester
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour spooned and leveled
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup walnut oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 large orange
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- Demerara Sugar, optional, for sprinkling on top of cookies before baking
Instructions
- Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.
- Melt butter in a pan over medium-high heat, swirling pan occasionally, until foaming subsides. Continue to cook, stirring and scraping bottom of pan with heat-resistant spatula, until milk solids are dark golden brown and butter has nutty aroma, 1 to 2 minutes. Immediately transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl, scraping skillet with spatula. Stir in cinnamon.
- Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil to bowl with butter and whisk until combined.
- Add eggs, vanilla and orange zest and whisk until mixture is smooth. Make sure browned butter mixture has cooled enough before adding eggs.
- Stir in flour mixture until fully combined, about 1 minute.
- Add oats and cranberries and stir until evenly distributed (mixture will be stiff). Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a #20 cookie scoop, scoop out dough and place dough balls 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Using back of measuring cup sprayed with nonstick spray, press each ball into a disk.
- Top with cookie with sprinkling of Demerara or sparkling sugar if desired before baking.
- Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until cookie edges are set and lightly browned and centers are still soft but not wet, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet on wire rack for 5 minutes; transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool completely. Store in airtight container.
Notes
- Stirring the oats and cranberries together before adding them to the dough mixture, helps prevent the cranberries from clumping together and mix more evenly throughout your batter.
- This dough benefits for a couple hours of chilling time in the refrigerator, (or up to overnight). The chilling time allows the flavors to meld and results in a chewier texture and less spreading when baking.
- Substitute raisins for cranberries if your prefer or omit altogether; you'll get slightly fewer cookies.
- For best chewy texture use old-fashioned oats. You can substitute quick oats (which will be less chewy) but avoid extra-thick rolled oats, as they will bake up tough in the cookie.
- When measuring flour, use the ‘spoon & sweep’ method: Use a spoon to fill measuring cup with flour to overflowing, then sweep with knife edge to level. Scooping flour directly from the bag or canister will yield a heavier cup and larger amount that can negatively affect your recipes.