These Cranberry Blueberry Oatmeal Cookies, in all their antioxidant goodness, bake up in a flash and make a great lunchbox treat for kids of all ages.
I love a recipe that you can customize with all sorts of different flavors, a master recipe, if you will. When you have a master recipe, you’re allowed so much flexibility. You don’t have to stick to a recipe, you can branch out, using what you have on hand, avoiding the grocery store, and making good use of your resources.
My Mix and Match Muffin Mix is like that. As is this Farm-style Oatmeal Cookies recipe. Stir in whatever you like, whatever you’ve got on hand, from dried fruit to nuts to seeds to chocolate, you’ve got a winner, no matter what.
And I like winning. Particularly in the cookie department.
In this rendition, I filled a vintage oatmeal cookie with modern day anti-oxidants, stirring in dried blueberries, dried cranberries, and dark chocolate chips. They are tart and sweet and chewy and soft — and so very delicious!
Go patriotic and make them Red, White, and Blue Cookies by subbing in white chocolate for the dark. Yum!
How to make this good and cheap:
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the price of flour, oats, dried fruit, chocolate and butter can help keep the price down.
- Buying in bulk – It’s rare that I would buy a small package of dried cranberries. I usually buy the ginormous bag at Costco. Likewise, I buy butter by the 4# lots for a steal at Costco.
How I make this recipe easy:
One of the great things about these cookies is that freeze really well. Bake them to eat right away, flash freeze the cookie dough for later baking, or freeze the baked cookies for quick snacking later.
This recipe really couldn’t be easier than it is, but having the right kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs.
Here are the tools that I use for this recipe:
- parchment paper – I hate washing pans. Parchment paper makes clean up a breeze.
- sheet pans – I LOVE my set of steel sheet pans. They make such a difference in baking.
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 3/4 cups unbleached flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried blueberries
- Heat the oven to 375°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl combine the sugar, butter, buttermilk, and vanilla. Stir in the remaining ingredients.
- With wet hands, shape the dough into 2-inch balls. The dough will be sticky. Place the dough balls about 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass dipped in water.
- Bake until set and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove to cookie sheet and cool.
To flash freeze, place cookie dough balls on a lined cookie sheet that will fit in your freezer. Freeze until firm. Remove to ziptop bag and return to freezer for up to 3 months. Bake according to directions, adding up to 5 minutes baking time.
Baked cookies can also be frozen. Place in layers separated by waxed paper in an airtight container; cover. Store at room temperature for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutritional values are approximate and based on 1 cookie.
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I’m printing this with plans to make them ASAP! Thanks for the recipe!
Let me know what you think!
Do you know of anyway to make them dairy free. My oldest has a dairy allergy. Love your blogs!
What do you use normally in place of butter or milk?
We made these last weekend and my husband says they are now a 4th of July tradition! Just curious why there are no eggs? My dad pointed out that maybe that’s why they were a bit crumbly??? Just curious
Regardless….we still loved them!
I have no idea. The original recipe had no eggs. But, I’m curious why yours were crumbly. Hmmm….
Can fresh or frozen blueberries be put in place of the dried or will this ruin it?
I have no idea. Try it and find out! 😉 Then tell us how it goes.
I will! =)
so I still haven’t had a chance to bake these!! I plan to before our vacation on monday so hopefully I’ll get you that update on fresh/frozen blueberries for this recipe.
We’re trying these today 🙂
I just made these and they are super yummy! I dried my fresh blueberries in my dehydrator, some of the bigger ones didn’t dry all the way and those ended up breaking when I mixed them into the dough. I think if you used all fresh you’d have to add them last and fold in carefully to keep them whole. Mine also seemed a bit crumbly, I’m wondering if maybe when I rolled the balls I should have compacted them a bit more? Thanks for the recipe, I’ll be making this again! 🙂
If you choose to use fresh blueberries instead of dried…You should freeze them prior to folding them into the batter. It will keeping them from breaking up and also from turning the batter BLUE…