White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

What better to top off my Butternut Squash and Pesto Lasagna than oatmeal cookies with dried cherries and white chocolate chips? I've always been a fan of oatmeal cookies for their chewiness and heartiness that can really cheer me up. One thing I do not like is raisins. Raisins are a big no no. I'm coming around to them being in some things, but their flavor is so overpowering and concentrated to me. Yuck. As an alternative, I'll use dried cranberries or craisins but this time I found a recipe for Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies from the blog All Day I Dream About Food.

Buttery chocolatey yummy.

What I love about cookies is how easy they are. I've been making the tollhouse recipe chocolate chip cookies since I was in second grade so now I can literally recite it from memory (2 1/4 cup flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 cup softened butter, 3/4 cup granulated...). After making a few batches of those my 8 year old mind thought it wise to do 1 cup of brown sugar and only a 1/2 cup of granulated instead of equal parts of both. I felt comfortable making the modifications because cookies are so forgiving. You can't really go wrong making them. Cookies are like your favorite pair of dark wash skinny jeans, while cakes, scones, and other pastries are more like that hot pink Herve Leger bandage dress you saw in Vogue the other day. You have to pull the dress off perfectly or you'll look terrible, but you can pretty much throw on any old top with your jeans and you're ready to go. Right? Right.

They lasted about 36 hours in the house.

I'd read a few months ago to brown the butter whenever you're making standard cookies because the flavor of the browned butter adds a richness and depth to the cookie that can't be brought in from anything else. The browned butter with the brown sugar in these cookies was heavenly. Since the butter was still a little warm when I put it over the sugar, it started to melt the sugar and the kitchen smelled like caramel. It was d-i-v-i-n-e. The only reason I put the bowl with the butter over an ice bath was because I was afraid that the cookies wouldn't be fluffy if the butter wasn't at least slightly solid again.The other change I made was adding vanilla extract and just a dab of almond extract. I'm a huge fan of almond extract for its clean and sharp flavor, but it's extremely potent so use it sparingly. So here is the recipe with my modifications. Enjoy!

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup butter (two sticks)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp almond extract
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1 cup white chocolate chips

Steps

Preheat oven to 350

1. Place the two sticks of butter in a medium sauce pan over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally, but allow butter to bubble slightly in pan. What you are looking for is browned butter. This will take about 8 minutes, but please be careful not to burn the butter. It does not taste good!

2. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

3. When butter has browned and cooled slightly, pour butter into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Fill a larger bowl with ice water and place the mixing bowl over ice water. This will cool the butter down and help it re-form into butter like texture. Be sure to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula, and stir constantly to release heat. When browned butter has thickened, fit mixer with whisk attachment and whip butter to fluff up a bit- about  2 minutes on full speed.

4. Take off whisk attachment and replace with paddle attachment. Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time until thoroughly combined, scraping down beaters and bowl as needed. Add vanilla and almond extracts.

5. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Mix in oats, cherries and white chocolate chips until just incorporated.

6. Roll tablespoons of dough between palms and place on prepared baking sheets. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake until edges are beginning to brown and tops are soft and puffy, 15-20 minutes, switching and rotating pans halfway through baking. 

7. Let cool on baking sheets for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.