Cranberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

I can't tell you how convenient it is to have cookie dough rolled and ready to bake in your freezer.  This cookie recipe is a huge hit with my Bible study group.  I adapted it from a few recipes that I found online.  The oatmeal makes them hearty.  The dried cranberries bring a great tang and the white chocolate makes them sweet.  Only bake how many you need and keep the rest in the freezer for spontaneous entertaining.  Did you just find out your co worker's birthday is tomorrow?  Is your mother in law in from out of town for a surprise visit?  Did your child give his or her teacher a very hard time and you'd like to reward the teacher with a plate of homemade cookies to apologize?  Well just grab a dozen cookie dough balls out of the freezer and bake them up in 12 minutes flat.  Done! 

Ingredients:

1 cup butter flavored Crisco stick (or margarine)
2/3 C white sugar
2/3 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 C quick oats
2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tar tar (not pictured above and optional)
1 C Craisins (5 oz package)
1 1/2 C white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl cream together the butter flavored Crisco stick, 2/3 C brown sugar and 2/3 C white sugar.  Add 1 tsp vanilla, two beaten eggs and stir well.  I use a hand mixer to make quick work of these steps.

Add 1 cup of quick oats and stir it up! Sprinkle in 2 1/4 C flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda.  If you would like your cookies to have a rough cracked appearance on the top instead of a smooth look then add 1/2 tsp cream of tar tar.  It will not affect the taste of the cookie, but it will have a great bakery look to them.  Stir well.

Now is time to put away the hand mixer and add the 1 cup of Craisins and 1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips.  I knead them in by hand so that they get well dispersed and the dried cranberries wont get chopped up by the beaters. 

Now you get to decide how many you want to bake and how many you would like to freeze.  I put 18 cookies on a sheet and baked at 350 degrees for 11 minutes.  Once they just start to turn golden brown take them out and let them cook a few minutes on the cookie sheet.

Can you see all the cracks and fissures on top that make them look hearty and homey?  Now take the remaining cookie dough and roll 1 1/2" balls.  Place them 1 inch apart on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. 

Place them on the pan into the freezer for 2 hours.  Once they are cold and firm you can remove them from the sheet pan and pile the cookie dough balls into a labeled gallon freezer bag.  By flash freezing them on a sheet pan first it will ensure that they don't stick together in the gallon bag and make it hard to break apart. 

Then any day you need some fresh made from scratch cookies you can grab a few out of the freezer and bake them for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.  This works out well for my husband and I because we don't want 4 dozen cookies laying around the house, but we can bake just a few at a time and we aren't so tempted to overindulge. 

I hope you give this one a try. 
Christie aka Keeza