C is for Cherry. Cookie. That's good enough for me.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Oatmeal Raisin Sour Cherry Cookies.

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup shortening
4 T butter
2 T vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggses
1/2 cup yogurt
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups raisins (I used leftover sour cherries; besides, raisin cookies are a cruel tease.)

Heat oven to 350. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
In a large bowl, cream together the fats and brown sugar. Add the eggses one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the yogurt and vanilla. Stir in the oats and fruit, then add the flour mixture in three additions, beating well after each.

Drop the batter from a tablespoon onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 14 minutes. They'll be light tan; if you let them brown, they'll be crisp instead of chewy. Let them cool on the parchment until lukewarm, then transfer to a wire rack.

What worked: These were quite tasty. I lowered the oil/butter/shortening amounts and they still had good mouthfeel. Oatmeal raisin cookies are just mean; you think they have chocolate chips, and then you find out it's baked raisins. Blech. [I like raisins, but not in that context.] The cookies were indeed chewy, albeit with an oatmeal crunch.

What didn't: Like most oatmeal cookies they are not as attractive ("craggy" is the most appealing description). I made them larger and needed to bake a couple minutes longer. I did have to take some time snipping the dried cherries in quarters to get them to the right size.

Will I make it again? I tend not to make that many cookies, but I'd be willing to slot them in the rotation.

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

I agree, raisins in cookies (or, as the Dutch do it, in apple pie) are cruel jokes. We generally just omit them altogether for oatmeal cookies. But I like the idea of sour cherries.