(white) chocolate chip cherry oatmeal cookies
If you’ve hung out with John (yes, he is coming up in all of these posts now) in the past few months, you’ve probably heard about how we’re planning to install wood laminate flooring in our apartment, as a couple of hapless, decorating-challenged newlyweds would. After a solid day of moving furniture around, Asian-squatting over and over, and sawing and pounding on many many planks of stuff that looks like wood but is much cheaper, we were dead tired and wanted only greasy Thai takeout and cold beer for dinner.
Luckily I planned ahead for dessert by making some cookie dough the night before. I will be baking small batches at a time throughout the week (unless I end up just freezing it for later). I meant to use brown chocolate chips but found only white chocolate chunks in the kitchen. These were a huge improvement from the failed apricot cookies I made a few weeks back. Chewy and moist and maybe a little bit sweeter than I usually like stuff, but perfect with a glass of cold milk in the late evening. Ok fine, or for breakfast.
Sift together and set aside:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream together for 3 minutes using an electric mixer:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, left out at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup (lightly packed) light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix into butter and sugar mixture:
1 large egg
Then add the flour mixture while the mixer is still going on low speed.
Fold in:
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup chopped pecans, lightly toasted in a dry pan (more is ok)
1/2 cup chocolate chips or white chocolate chips (this is also a pretty conservative amount)
Chill dough for several hours, or overnight. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop tablespoon-size balls of cold dough on to a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Bottoms of the cookies should be barely golden and the centers should still be gooey. Let cool for 5 minutes, then dig in. Makes about 60 1 1/2-inch cookies.
