Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

These are quite possibly my favorite oatmeal cookie. For all those raisin-haters out there (of which I am not one), just bake your mom a batch of these and she might start using cherries instead of raisins in her oatmeal cookies. The recipe is easy and quick, but be aware - it makes a large quantity of dough so you'll be baking cookies for awhile! (I was thinking of halving the recipe next time to see how that turned out.)

The batter is thick, so you'll definitely want a Kitchen-Aid or something heavier duty than your arm or a hand-held mixer. The original recipe I tweaked said to lightly grease a cookie sheet; I used parchment paper and it worked great.  I've also found quite frequently that I am able to use a sheet of parchment twice when baking cookies, so give it a try if it's not looking burned after the first batch!

Cherry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 T baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups dried cherries (about 9 oz) - or slightly more never hurt anyone!
about 1 cup white chocolate chips

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cut a few sheets of parchment paper to the size of your cookies sheets.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and baking soda; stir in the rolled oats.  In the electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture in 2 batches, mixing well after each addition.

3. You will have a  very stiff dough - that may try to pop out the top of the mixer! Mix in the cherries and white chocolate chips until just incorporated.

4. Scoop the dough out in rounded tablespoons and place on the cookie sheet. Slightly flatten with the bottom of a cup so the cookies are even in height/flat on top.  The cookies do not spread out much, so you may place them fairly close together; because they don't spread out much, if you don't flatten, they will likely be uncooked in the middle! I also found that I had to sometimes roll or pinch the dough to get it to adhere and make a 'ball' of dough that didn't crumble.

5. Bake 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheet if necessary for even baking. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!