Oatmeal Cookies

Craisin White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

One of my favorite things about Christmas is all the traditions that go along with it. Gingerbread house building, baking, listening to Christmas music, hanging the stockings, you catch my drift. There is just so much magic in the month leading up to Christmas. Well, ever since my son with 10 months old we have taken him for annual photos with Santa. They are all framed and sit in chronological order (have a mentioned I have OCD tendencies before? LOL) along the entertainment center leading up to Christmas.

Santa

This year he is 10 years old and he still wanted to go take a pick with Santa. With COVID I didn’t think we could make that happen but sure enough, we found a place that was doing physically distanced photos by appointment only. Yay! Anyways, ever since my son could talk he would make sure to ask Santa what kind of cookies he wanted us to leave out for Christmas, it never fails, he ALWAYS says oatmeal. Now one thing I will fess up to is that I despise raisins! I cannot eat them! Even as an adult I will pick them out of trail mix. I refuse to contaminate a good oatmeal cookie with raisins! However, I do love me some craisins. So, ever since that first time Santa said he wanted oatmeal cookies, this recipe made it into the baking rotation. These are delicious, buttery, and just the right amount of chewy and sweet. To me, these cookies are the cookie of Christmas and I guarantee you they are Santa approved!

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c + 6 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 c oats uncooked
1 c craisins
11 oz white chocolate chips

STEPS

Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy.
Add eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture.
Gradually start to fold in the flour ingredients into the butter mixture.
Add oats, craisins, white chocolate chips and mix well.
Drop dough by the spoonful onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
Bake for 8–10 minutes or until light golden brown.
Allow cookies to sit on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cutting board or cooling rack.

Do you have some overripe brown bananas on your counter that are about a day away from looking like a science project? Don’t toss them out! Put them to use. Typically when I have overripe bananas I make my banana nut bread. Well I already had a couple extra loaves in the freezer the other day so I decided to try something else. I thought to myself, chocolate and bananas are an awesome flavor combination so why not try to make some delicious cookies. This recipe is for chocolate chip banana oatmeal cookies but I like the name Chunky Monkeys, an ode to my favorite Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. These cookies are relatively more healthy than most oatmeal cookies since far less butter is needed with all those bananas in there keeping them moist. Be sure to store these in an airtight container and they will stay fresh for days. Hope you and your little monkeys enjoy them as much as mine did.

INGREDIENTS
3 overripe bananas
4 tbsp butter (1/2 stick), melted
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 c brown sugar, packed
1 c sugar
2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 c old fashioned oats
24 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips
1 c chopped pecans

STEPS

Preheat oven to 350º.
In a large mixing bowl mash the bananas until smooth.
Beat in butter, eggs, vanilla, and sugars on low speed until smooth.
In a second mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Gradually add flour mixture to banana mixture and continue mixing on low speed until combined.
Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and nuts.
Drop cookie dough by the spoonful onto greased baking sheets.
Bake for 11–14 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 2–3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack or board to cool using a spatula.
Enjoy with a tall glass of cold milk!