Cranberry Apricot Oatmeal Cookies

Is loving oatmeal cookies a sign of maturity? It very well may be. As a child, I never would have chosen any sort of oatmeal cookie voluntarily. If chocolate chip, peanut butter, snickerdoodle, sugar or basically any other type were available, I would have gone with those. I should have known better than to judge a cookie by its appearance but they just didn’t entice me. They were generally reserved for dire straits, only-cookie-available situations. But these days, I positively love them.

To me, they are the epitome of a homey, comforting cookie. And with the oats and the dried fruit, they are well on their way to becoming a granola bar. Ha! I first fell in love with this version last winter while baking cookies on a snowy day and though I have made them a few times since, they never seem to survive long enough to be photographed. With fall approaching, I made it a point to get these on your radar. To me, they are an ideal simple baking project for when that first chill hits the air. Enjoy!

Yield about 20 large cookies

Ingredients

164 grams (1 cup) diced dried apricot (about ¼-inch dice)
64 grams (1/3 cup) golden raisins
64 grams (1/3 cup) dried cranberries
290 grams (2 cups plus 2 tbsp.) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
260 grams (2½ cups) old fashioned rolled oats
½ tsp. kosher salt
250 grams (1 cup plus 2 tbsp.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
300 grams (1¼ cup) packed light brown sugar
173 grams (¾ cup plus 2 tbsp.) granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Directions

01
In a bowl, combine the dried apricots, golden raisins and dried cranberries. Cover with very hot water and let stand about 15 minutes. Drain the fruit and transfer to a plate lined with a clean kitchen towel. Set aside.
02
Preheat the oven to 375˚ F. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Whisk to combine. Stir in the oats and the salt. Set aside.
03
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugars. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, about 3-4 minutes. Blend in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions, mixing each just until combined. Add in the fruit mixture and mix until evenly incorporated.
04
Use a large dough scoop (about 2.5 oz.) to portion the cookie dough into mounds. Space well apart from each other on parchment-lined baking sheets (6 cookies per sheet). Pat each mound of dough down gently.
05
Transfer the baking sheets to the oven and bake, rotating halfway through, until golden brown at the edges but slightly pale in the middle, about 14-18 minutes total. Transfer the baking sheets to a wire rack and let cool at least 1o minutes before removing from the baking sheet to the rack to let cool completely.

Source

slightly adapted from The Dahila Bakery Cookbook by Tom Douglas and Shelley Lance