One of my favorite past-times recently has been baking. With the stress of COVID-19 hanging over our heads, baking can be a therapeutic activity. In distracting myself, I’ve found a sense of peace whenever I hear the rhythmic sound of the electric mixer or the scent of freshly-baked cookies. Moreover, with reduced trips to the grocery store, my snack stash has been running at an all-time low and baking has become more of a necessity to feed my snacking appetite.
Recently, after many rounds of trial and error, I’ve managed to cook my own cranberry oatmeal cookies. These cookies have a higher fibre content that helps add nutrition to your quarantine snacking. Baking has helped me stay busy and productive in the past month. Particularly, exploring new recipes and experimenting with my own have been helpful in creating the perfect cranberry oatmeal cookies. For those who follow my columns, I’m not a huge fan of sweets, hence most of my recipes have greatly reduced sugar content which makes for a healthier, guilt-free snacking. Due to recent COVID-19 concerns, I’ve greatly reduced the number of trips to the grocery stores and have been using ingredients in my pantry. If you’re not a fan of dried cranberries, alternatives can be used such as raisins, chocolate chips, coconut shreds and even M’ and M’s!
Total preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, unsalted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar or white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour (or mix 1 cup whole grain flour with all purpose flour for a granier texture)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon (alternative: 1 tsp cocoa powder)
- 3 cups cooking oats
- ½ cup dried cranberries (alternative: raisins, chocolate chip, coconut shreds)
Directions:
- In a large bowl mix the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs with an electric mixer or whisk until thoroughly blended. Set aside
- Add baking soda, salt, cinnamon/cocoa powder slowly into the mixture until mixed evenly
- Slowly add dried cranberry or raisin into the mixture
- Spray a thin layer of vegetable oil on a cooking sheet to preventing cookies sticking on sheets
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F for 5 minutes
- Use an ice cream scoop or regular spoon and add dolops onto the baking sheet. Flatten each ball into cookie-like shape