Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies So Good They'll Stop Your Kid From Crying

Parents of three year-olds, I salute you!

We have house guests this week, our friend Celia and her three year old daughter, Johanna. And while I'd been told that the terrible twos are nothing compared to the terrible threes, that really had no significance for me since I don't have children, I just have a cat and she's 14. But Johanna is three and very adorable and fun (last night she tried to read me a bedtime story and confessed, midway through, "I don't quite know how to read") but also prone to screaming tantrums. And when she arrived at our door on Saturday, she was in the middle of a fierce one. "She just woke up from a nap," explained Celia. Thankfully, I had cookies on hand to sooth the savage beast.

The cookies came by way of an e-mail from readers Dan and David who promised, "If you make these cookies you'll fall in love and they'll replace the brownie recipe as your new fav!" The recipe itself comes from Food & Wine and after reading it, and considering Dan and David's words, I knew I had to give them a go.

The basics are all in there--the butter, the sugar, the baking powder, the baking soda, the salt--only with a few surprising additions. Oats, which add heft; dried cranberries, which add tartness and sweetness; and little chocolate chips which lend depth.

Just digging into the batter by itself (and don't we all do that?) I knew these were going to be good. I timed it so they'd be warm out of of the oven by the time Celia and Johanna arrived.

And I was just in time!

As Johanna sniffled and sobbed her way through our first few moments, I mentioned the existence of these cookies. "Ooooh," said Celia to the inconsolable Johanna, "Jo, do you want a cookie?"

Jo nodded and I offered it to her much like the scientists offer a goat to the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Immediately the sobbing stopped; the world seemed to stop actually.

The formerly screaming three year-old had to agree with Dan and David: these were some seriously excellent cookies.

Recipe: Cranberry Chocolate Oat Cookies

Summary: Adapted from Food and Wine.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (10 ounces), at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet or white chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Stir the flour with the oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Meanwhile, in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the egg and the egg yolk and vanilla; beat until combined, scraping down the bowl as necessary. Beat in the dry ingredients; then add the chocolate chips and cranberries and beat just until incorporated.
3. Use an ice cream scoop with a lever to make mounds of dough on the cookie sheet which you should flatten, slightly, with your hand. Keep them 2 inches apart because they'll spread. If you don't want to bake them all now, put one cookie sheet in the freezer and pluck off the frozen cookie blobs and place in a freezer bag for another time.
4. For those you're making now: bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cookies begin to brown at the edges. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets and eat while still warm. With any left, keep in Tupperware for 2 to 3 days.

Preparation time: 20 minute(s)

Cooking time: 15 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 12

My rating 5 stars:  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)