Oatmeal Cookies with craisins & toffee

The Chestnut Street Bakery makes a fabulous oatmeal cookie with cranberry, toffee & chocolate chips in it. Ever since having one after lunch the other day I've been thinking about making my own version. A lazy Saturday provided me with the perfect opportunity so I studied different recipes from Joy of Cooking, Alton Brown and Quaker Oats and came up with this batch. We couldn't find toffee bits at our Safeway though we know Hersey's makes them so we bought some Wether's Originals & smashed them into bits.

This gave us pieces of all different size & made for some nice big bites of toffee in the cookies.

Also most recipes said we needed to use regular slow cooking rolled oats but Quaker Oats said their Quick Cook Oats work fine for cookies. We used the quick cook because we have them around for breakfasts & they worked perfectly. We didn't use chocolate chips because we both felt they weren't necessary in this cookie but you could add a 1/2 cup to the recipe.



Oatmeal Cookies with craisins & toffee

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 sticks of unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup toffee bits
1 cup craisins (dried cranberries)

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together, set aside. In a small bowl beat the eggs & vanilla together. In a mixture using the paddle attachment beat the butter to just bring it together. Add the sugar and cream until light & fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla & mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix until everything is combined. With a spoon stir in the oats, toffee and craisins. Line cookie sheets with either parchment paper or a silicone mat. Scoop out the dough in heaping teaspoons and place in cookies sheets abut 2 inches apart. Flatten each cookie slightly. Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the cookies sheet. Bake for 6 more minutes. Cookies should be golden brown & slightly firm to the touch. Allow the cookies to cool for about 4 minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a cooling rack, this gives time for the melted toffee to set.

makes 5 - 5 1/2 dozen cookies

I think these cookies are best once they are cooled & the toffee has re-harden.