Sunday, January 22, 2012

Cranberry Orange Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

Yes, I said cookies.  Cranberry Orange is one of my all-time favorite flavor combinations.  My best friend swoons at Peanut Butter and Chocolate, I swoon for Cranberry Orange.  I will try anything that purports to have this combination of flavors. Unfortunately, it is a seasonal flavor to most people, kind of like pumpkin.  My family makes Cranberry Orange bread for Christmas morning.  I try to make a few loaves during the season because it requires fresh cranberries.  I am sure you can find "fresh" cranberries out of season, but that just seems like a bad idea somehow.

To get my flavors in something other than a muffin or bread.  I decided to go in search of a cookie.  The Oracle (aka Google) led me to this recipe for Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies.  Having already made 60 other oatmeal cookies today I decided to make a half of this recipe and vary it a bit, this is what I came up with:



Cranberry Orange Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 C butter
3/4 C light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 Tbsp grated orange peel
1/2 tsp orange extract
3/4 C A.P. flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 C rolled oats
1/2 C cranberries
1/2 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and rolled oats.  In separate bowl, beat butter and brown sugar.  Add egg, vanilla and orange peel to butter mixture.  Mix in dry ingredients.  Once combined, add orange extract. Fold in cranberries and pecans.  Bake 12 minutes in 350F oven, let sit about 3 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a cooling rack. Yield: about 30 cookies