I know I’m not the only person whose first thought upon seeing oatmeal cookies is, “Are those raisins or chocolate chips?” Followed by an invocation skyward: “Please be chocolate chips; please be chocolate chips.” Amelia is one of those rare gems who LIKES raisins in her oatmeal cookies. But she also loves these. How could she not love these? Just enough dried cranberries for some tart sweetness, toasted pecans for notes of earth and sun, oats for satisfying texture, and chocolate for delectability.
We implore you, at least the first time you make these, to please follow our recommended measurements for the cranberries, pecans, and chocolate. We did a lot of experimenting to get it just right. Any more chocolate would overpower the other additions. More nuts or craisins and they wouldn’t hold together—nor would the flavors play nice together. We’ve worked hard on this recipe to make it just right and we want you to enjoy it—win cookie competitions with it—the way Nature intended when it first nudged early peoples to try heating cocoa beans and to leave those cranberries out in the sun.
Oatmeal Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt (if not kosher or sea salt, use only a scant 3/4 teaspoon)
11/4 cups old-fashioned oats (for extra deliciousness, put the oats on a cookie sheet in the oven for 7 minutes while it heats)
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecans, chopped and lightly toasted (7 minutes in a 350-degree oven—or you can just put them, with the oats, on a cookie sheet for 7 minutes as the oven heats)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed (you can use light brown if you don’t have dark)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk together the flour, soda, and salt. Add oats and whisk once more. Measure chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans into a separate small bowl.
Mix butter and sugars in mixer until light and fluffy—two or three minutes. Take a minute to scrape down the sides of the bowl, add vanilla, and mix again. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add flour, soda, salt, and oats. Mix only until incorporated. Scrape the bowl again. Add chocolate chips, cranberries, and pecans. Turn the mixer on high and mix them for only a few seconds. Remove bowl from mixer.
Shape cookies into large tablespoon-size balls and place them on cookie sheets that have either been greased or lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Bake for 9 minutes. Leave cookies on the pan for five minutes to cool, then transfer them to cooling racks.
Note: This is a chewy cookie that is on the thin side. If you like your cookies thicker, refrigerate the balls of dough for ten minutes or longer before putting them into the oven.
This plate is from a set that belonged to our great/great great grandparents and it’s over a hundred years old.