White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Cranberry, orange and white chocolate go together like it's nobody's business, so it just made sense to me to throw them all together into an oatmeal cookie and let the rest work out from there. I have been craving these cookies for a while, but just haven't had the time to sit down and create them.  So on the eve of the Frugal Foodies one year anniversary (please, hold your applause till the end) this just seemed right. 

It was a success! The roomies tried them and Leah suggested that they become a breakfast cookie and I couldn't agree more. I mean it's still

 a cookie, but the oatmeal makes it more like breakfast right? Well it doesn't matter because I 

just said it did. Ha. 

Without further adieu here is the recipe. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup soften butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups oats (Quaker Oats are perfect)
• 1 orange
• 1/2 - 3/4 cups white chocolate chips (I didn't really measure, because, well I like a lot)
• 1/2 - 3/4 cups dried cranberries (same rules apply here)

Directions

Prep time: 20-25 minutes

Bake time: 8-10 minutes

First, preheat the oven to 375. In a large bowl, add 1 cup butter (two sticks) that have been cut into tablespoons (just makes it easier to mix together) with the white sugar and brown sugar. On low-medium low speed mix together so that the mixture is cumbly (yes, very 

technical term). 

Gently beat in one egg at a time, do not overbeat the mixture. Add in vanilla. 

In a separate bowl combine your dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and gently mix together. 

SLOWLY, add the dry ingredients in with the butter/sugar/egg mixture. Now, this part took me some time to make 

sure that all the flour was beaten into the mixture. 

Once everything is mixed together and has the consistency of cookie dough, add in the three

 cups of oats. 

FF Note: At this point in the game, I thought I had messed something up. I didn't

 think that the oats would mix with the flour and there would be too much, it just looked like too much. It's not you're fine. Keep going. 

Anyways, once you add your oats, here comes the fun part: add in your cranberries and white chocolate chips. As much as you like, honestly, I wish

 I would have added more. You are never going to say, "hey, um, there is too much chocolate in my cookie." Never going to happen. Dump away. 

Once those are add zest the orange into the mix. All the flavor you really need is in the skin of the orange. I promise, its just a subtle hint. You can leave this out, but I wouldn't. I honestly think it adds a little something extra. Mix that in.

Get a cookie sheet (or two) and spray with non-stick spray. Then gently arrange cookies about an inch apart (they will expand a lot). 

Place in the oven for 8-10 minutes, then remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Ok, ok you can eat them hot too. 

True story: you can make these cookies. Seriously, if you do not impress people with these cookies, then you are hanging out with the wrong crowd. I have been ordered to take them to work tomorrow so we don't sit around and eat them all day. Even though I am taking them to work with me, which really means that Annie and Leah don't sit around all day, but yes, they are that good :)