I'm not sure why, but it seems that Christmas is the perfect season for making cookies. My family has always made cookies at Christmas, giving them to family and friends as gifts or just enjoying them at a family gathering. The traditional cookie of my family's Christmas is a raspberry almond thumbprint cookie with a drizzle of almond icing - if I weren't so pregnant, I'd probably have made both those and these as they truly remind me of home. But, a couple of years ago, when Dan and I were living in Florida, far away from our families, I started making these cookies. With their perfect combination of flavors, they were immediately a favorite of everyone who I made them for. With all the fanfare, I decided to take on this cookie as my classic Christmas cookie - the one cookie that people will remember as my specialty at Christmastime. Pretty easy and unbelievably delicious, this may just be one of your family's new favorites too.
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1. Position two racks in the center and top third of the oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.
I don't have a traditional "sifter" so I use a strainer and push the dry ingredients through it using a spoon. It seems to do the trick and I end up with a nice, light mixture. The bowl I used was WAY bigger then it needed to be. This is all you use this bowl for. (I should have read through the recipe like a good girl before I chose my tools.)
4. Using an electric mixer, beat butter (at room temperature), sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until well blended.
Don't they look cozy.
This is the consistency you are looking for. It takes a bit of time, but you want to make sure that it is very well mixed, almost creamy.
5. Mix in egg and both extracts.
I always break my eggs into a separate glass because I don't trust myself to not get any shell into the mixture. For this, I added the extracts right to the glass, then poured the whole thing into the mixing bowl.
The mixed ingredients should look about like this - creamy but thick enough to form peaks.
6. Beat flour mixture into sugar mixture.
It is important that you mix in all of the last four (larger) ingredients separately so that they are well distributed throughout the dough. You can stir them in by hand, but I like to use the "stir" setting on my mixer. After integrating the oats, chocolate chips, cherries and almonds, the dough becomes very thick and can be difficult to stir by hand.
7. Mix in oats.
8. Mix in chocolate chips.
9. Mix in cherries.
10. Mix in almonds.
After the almonds are mixed in, your dough will be incredibly thick, which is good for the cookies but bad for your mixer, so make sure you keep it on a low speed.
11. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets (that have been previously lined with parchment), spacing them about 2" apart.
12. Bake cookies 12 minutes, then switch and rotate baking sheets and bake an additional 6 minutes, or until golden.
13. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets. Cookies will firm as they cool.
If you are going to a party and want to bring these cookies, they maintain their texture for about a week when stored in an airtight container. Of course, if I made them 1 week in advance, they would never make it to the party!
And yes, they taste as good (if not better) than they look!
Until next time,
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