Oatmeal Berry Blend Cookies

I love cookies...I love making cookies...I love eating cookies. Cookies and I go way back. I remember as a young girl sending cookies to my dad's work and "the guys" sending home money for me to purchase more ingredients so that I could make more. As a child this is high praise and the few dollars (I don't remember exactly how much) was quite a bit of loot!

These Oatmeal Berry Blend Cookies are a take off the classic oatmeal rasin cookie. The base recipe is from one of my favorite and most used cookbooks: Pillsbury: The Complete Book of Baking. Since I don't care for raisins that much I thought I'd use some of the dried fruit (SunSweet Berry Blend...this is a new product and has wild blueberries, bing cherries, raspberries, cranberries and red tart cherries in it!) that I had recently purchased and didn't care for on its own. I didn't measure the cinnamon really well either...I bumped it up a bit so that the cinnamon flavor would be stronger. They came out the perfect blend of sweet, cinnamon-y and fruity. MMM...

I used a small meatball scoop to drop my cookies, so they came out a bit larger than normal, the recipe only made about 2 dozen (normally makes approximately 3.5 dozen) and I had to bake them a bit longer. I also didn't grease my pan because I was using the silpats...if you don't have a silpat type product, you'd want to grease your pan. This was fine with me as I didn't need a ton of cookies laying around.

Ready for the Oven!

Finished Product Cooling on Pan

I didn't get a "glamour shot" of these cookies....I forgot and then they were gone too fast! I took most of them to work and they disappeared quickly.

Recipe: Oatmeal Berry Blend Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup Berry Blend
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, and I opted out this time)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. If you don't have a silpat type product, grease your cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in rolled oats, berry blend and nuts (if using). (Normally...) Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet, then move to cooling rack.

Enjoy with love,
Christina