Pantry Raid Cookies

Delicious Cookies Full of Stuff!

Sometimes you just get a craving.  I was hankering for oatmeal cookies.  I wanted a cookie with a little substance to it.  I have made a couple of oatmeal cookie variations on my blog before.  The first one with chocolate chunks and coconut were delicious, as were the next edition without coconut but with Crisco.  So I found a happy compromise with this recipe, and honestly, I just cleaned out the pantry and the freezer, or at least made a dent in it.  The recipe is a basic oatmeal cookie recipe in which 99% of the population would add raisins.  I do not like raisins in my baked goods.  So before Lent, I would have just substituted the raisins for chocolate chunks.  But, I gave the stuff up.  Which is good, because I was eating and ounce or two every night of Cocoa Noir.  Antioxidants you know.  So this time I added dried cherries, the last of the crystallized ginger (see the cookies I made with it here), a little coconut, the last of a bag of pecan pieces and the last of a bag of macadamia nuts.  I also did half and half on the oatmeal, half was old fashioned and the other half was steel cut.  I had a tiny bit if dark brown sugar hardening in the pantry so I used that and the remainder was light brown sugar.  The flour was whole wheat, and in staying with that cleaning out mode, I used the butter Christmas tree I had to have this holiday.  (Yes, it was a Christmas Tree made out of butter, don't judge, I am from Iowa after all.) But we don't really butter anything and there it sat with a March expiration date.  So, in it went!  I made a little room and ended up with some delicious cookies that must be relatively healthy.  They were deliciously soft out of the oven and there are so many flavors to hit!   So, what are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

Get rid of all the odds and ends...

Pantry Raid Cookies

1 cup butter, room temp (2 sticks)
1 1/3 cup brown sugar ( I used a little dark and a lot light)
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups old fashioned oats
2 1/2 cups of stuff...raisins, chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut, nuts, anything

Cream butter and sugar in electric mixer bowl until fluffy and no brown sugar lumps are visible.  Add the eggs and mix just until incorporated.  Add all dry ingredients up to the oats and mix well.  Fold in the oats and stuff.  Cover and chill the dough an hour or overnight.  It is easier to handle cold and the cookies won't spread as much.

Preheat oven to 340F on convection, 350F regular.  Make uniform mounds on Silpat or parchment lined pans and bake about 12 minutes, but check at 8 minutes.  The colder the dough the closer to 12 minutes, later batches will bake faster.  Rotate halfway through cooking time.  Cool on pan, then rack, when they are firm enough to move.  Make coffe and give me a ring...