Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

I got this recipe from a dear friend of mine, Hannah who I met over 10 years ago in an AOL chat room. No, it wasn't "Single and Looking", it was "Food Chat" where I met a ton of great people and talked about food (and silliness) all day. I met several of them face-to-face, but Hannah is the only one I've met up with more than once.

I haven't seen her for some time now (my fault), but I do get to talk to her just about daily on Facebook. This is a recipe she sent through to a few of us and the only change I made was to add white chips in with the cranberries and the kids devoured these in no time!

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
Printable Recipe

Preheat oven to 350º and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (this may be reused for baking more than one batch and your cookie sheet stays clean). I mix all cookies by hand because I think it really makes a more tender dough.

1 stick margarine or butter at room temperature. If margarine make sure that it has at least 60% fat content.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar NOT packed in a measuring cup
Cream above ingredients until well incorporated and fluffy then add and mix:

1 large egg (also at room temperature)
1/2 t. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients:
1/2 scant t. baking soda
3/4 c. all-purpose flour (Note: I made these on a humid day and needed 1 cup flour)
1 c. old fashioned oats (not instant - the ones that take about 5 minutes to cook)

Add to the 'liquid' mixture to form a fairly stiff dough.

Chop about 1/3 c. craisins (dried cranberries) and mix into the dough. There should be enough so that every cookie has a few pieces of the fruit.

Drop by rounded teaspoons on cookie sheet about 1 1/2 - 2 inches apart.

Bake for about 12 minutes until the bottom is lightly browned and you can smell the cookies ... if you time the first batch all batches will be consistently baked and not too dark.

Remove to cooling racks and cool completely. Keep well in a tin or plastic container.