I made cookies!

A few weeks ago when I dived into the foodie world online I ended up on Cooks Illustrated website. Upon said site I signed up for a free copy of one of their magazines. The one I received had a recipe for the Ultimate Oatmeal Cookie. I was intrigued. It included nuts...not being a nut eater I was actually still intrigued. So I started collecting the components for said recipe. I was looking forward to trying the Ultimate (imagine that being said in the Movie Preview guys voice) Oatmeal Cookie. I've never made them before. I enjoy a good oatmeal cookie not my favorite but they are good. The hardest thing to find was dried cherries. They are not something that Wal-Mart has deemed to carry. I'm sure there are places around but the one I ended up going to was a whole foods store and the dried cherries I got were organic and eight bucks. So these were gonna be expensive cookies.
This is my mix of pecans, chocolate, dried cherries, and oats looks kinda yummy I think.

This is the 4 part mix from above mixed in with everything else in the mixer. May not look so hot but it mixed together really well. I followed the recipe on this one exactly, even to the point I let my butter soften but stay cool.


1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 c old-fashioned rolled oats
1 c pecans toasted & chopped
1 c dried sour cherries
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
12 Tbl unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract


whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl. In second bowl, stir together oats, pecans, cherries, and chocolate.
In a stand mixer beat butter & sugar at medium speed until no lumps remain. Scrape down the sides and add the egg & vanilla and beat on low/med until fully incorporated. Scrap down sides again then at low speed add the flour mixture and mix till fully combined. While mixer is still running add in oat mixture and mix until just incorporated. Give a manual stir to make sure no pockets with trapped flour exist.
At this point I used a ice cream scoop about 3/4 full to make my cookies. I did try a batch of smaller ones but they came out a bit darker around the edges than the larger ones did so I went back to the larger cookie. You want to cook for about 12 min then rotate pan 180 and bake for another 6-8 min. The cookies might still look a bit under done but they aren't and should have a chewy center and crispy edges.

The cookies turned out really well. I ate around the nuts personally but I enjoyed them and the Brother really enjoyed them. I also took a couple of them to work and let some co-workers enjoyed them. They were liked by all. So I say it's def a success but I do think before I try again I'll find a cheaper source of dried cherries.