Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
golden, chewy, "not too sweet", and filled to the brim with mix-ins
It feels so right for my first “self-published” recipe to be a step back in time to one of my first bakery jobs. After I graduated from the CIA (the culinary school, not the government) I spent a few months at Village Bread in Calimesa, CA. If you find yourself in the Inland Empire driving out to Palm Springs and itching for incredible sourdough, pretzels, and pastries, I heavily suggest stopping by. Now I may have had a degree in my back pocket, but I was still greener than artificial turf. To keep myself out of trouble I spent most of my time washing dishes, whisking pastry cream, and mixing a LOT of cookie dough. My personal favorite? The Cherry Oat Cookie. Even now when I have the opportunity to make the pilgrimage back home, I always stop by to say hi to Kev, Zachy, and to get my favorite cookie.
Now unless someone want to help me finance a quarterly trip across country, I cannot get these nostalgic bites as much as I seriously want.
So it’s time to reverse engineer these bad boys so I can keep a freezer stash!
The Goal
mix-ins > dough
“not too sweet”
achievable for the average home baker (keep the weird ingredients to a minimum)
The Breakdown
Lets start with the easiest challenge. Don’t use anything “too specialty”. I checked four of my local grocery stores and had no issue finding all of the ingredients listed below. The only time I had a bit of a snafus was finding dried cherries at my local Publix. If you do have a hard time finding dried cherries in your neck of the woods make sure to check both the “dried fruit” isle as well as the produce section. But if you’re really struggling, I encourage you to try other dried fruits at your disposal. I found dried cranberries added a great tang in my testing, and dried blueberries made for a lovely sweet addition. If push really comes to shove, raisins will do.
I’ll just have to look away.
Next, keeping the sweetness balanced. Sounds easy enough, just don’t add too much sugar, right? To that I say, eh. It’s a little more complicated. Yes, sugar makes things sweeter (duh) but it also aids in a soft and moist texture. Meaning if you just cut out sugar without being very mindful you’re going to have less of a cookie, and more of a rock. Which partially why I include the step to press the hot cookies down lightly as soon as they come out of the oven. The tops may be dry, but the centers should still be slightly doughy, so giving them a little smush will accentuate the cracks on top, and will help each cookie be even and flat.
Finally, making sure this cookie was more mix-ins than dough. I messed around with a few different ratios of oats/cherries to dough, and found 2 cups of oats and 1 cup of cherries gave the perfect level of bite from the oats and tang from the cherries. I will warn you though, this high amount of mix-ins means you’re going to need to be mindful of how much actual mixing you do during that final step. I recommend removing your bowl from the stand mixer and using a rubber spatula to do the final bit of mixing.
It’s not the end of the world if you accidentally forget to do that final hand mix and just let your mixer do all the heavy lifting (I say it because I did it in once or twice of my testing). You just might have a bit of a tougher cookie.
A final note on a little ingredient that might make you arch an eyebrow. Yes. the cocoa powder is meant to be there. No, this is not a “chocolate cookie”. Early on in my testing I noticed the color of these cookies were a bit, bla. I didn’t have a great solution, and to be honest I was ready to just let it ride.
That was until Steven and I went to do our grocery shopping and we wandered by the snack cakes. Cosmic Brownies, Ding Dongs, all the sugary treats you know you shouldn’t, but the nostalgia is so strong. I picked up the Oatmeal Cream pies and instinctively checked the ingredients for some inspiration. The color on them was just so evenly golden gorgeous.
Molasses, caramel color (???), chocolate
huh.
Molasses was a little too strong of a flavor to add to get that desired color, but just a little cocoa powder could definitely do the trick!
The Recipe
Cherry Oatmeal Cookies
Yield: about 1 dozen cookies
Ingredients
○ ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
○ 1 cup (220g) light brown sugar
○ 1 large egg, room temperature
○ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
○ 1 ¼ cup (156g) all-purpose flour
○ 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
○ 1 teaspoon baking powder
○ ½ teaspoon baking soda
○ ½ teaspoon kosher salt
○ 2 cups (160g) old-fashioned oats
○ 1 cup (128g) dried tart cherries
Method:
1. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and egg, beat until well combined. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well combined.
2. By pulsing the mixer between low and off, slowly incorporate the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until just combined. Add the oats and dried cherries and mix at a low speed until almost fully incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate the last few bits.
3. Using a 1/4 cup cookie scoop (about 68 grams each), scoop dough and roll into smooth balls, place on prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24. Once dough balls are chilled, they can be transferred to a large plastic bag and frozen for up to 3 months.
4. Preheat oven to 350F and line several baking sheets with parchment paper. If you only have one baking sheet, run your warm sheet pan under cold water between bakes. Dry thoroughly before baking your next batch of cookies. Resist the urge to bake on a hot pan, this can result in inconsistent spreading. Place as many dough balls as you can fit on your baking sheet with 2 inches of space between each.
5. Bake until the edges are golden brown, the tops are dry, and your house smells awesome, 14-16 minutes. Using the back of a spatula, gently flatten the tops of the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. Allow cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
