Foodie Adventuring // Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Chips & Cranberries

^ This was my test batch, sans white chocolate chips. The real batch finished cooling at, like, one in the morning and by the time I packed them at three, I just didn't want to bother with pictures. Sorry, guys. ^

I had these pumpkin oatmeal cookies on my to-do list for several weeks before actually rolling up my sleeves and pulling out the mixing bowls. Out of curiosity, how many twenty-one-year-olds do you know who say their favorite cookie is oatmeal raisin? *shakes head* I have weird friends. A whole bunch of them DON'T LIKE CHOCOLATE. What is this. How are we friends. I don't understand.

It was Steph-en's birthday mid-October, which is smack in the middle of pumpkin-everything season, so I decided that cookies were the way to go for a birthday present. You know, since I can't fit a border collie or a treehouse or Hans Solo inside a USPS box {other things on his imaginary birthday wish list}.

Confession: I'm kind of a lazy baker. In that, if I don't have the ingredients for something on hand, I just won't make that. But these cookies are both easy to put together and all the ingredients are things that are decently basic! {Except molasses. But turns out, the madre had that hidden in the back of a cupboard somewhere. So it worked out!}

Here's what I thought:

+ I doubled the amount of pumpkin pie spice because a teaspoon didn't smell like enough... and the cookies STILL didn't taste super pumpkin-y after being baked. So depending on how pumpkin-y you'd like your cookies to be, up the amount of spice. For us, the hint of pumpkin worked because the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries gave the cookies a lot of sweetness.

+ As I was stirring the wet ingredients together, they started cooling off and hardening {it's just butter, sugar, molasses, and pumpkin... none of which are super wet ingredients}. At first, I started adding it into the dry ingredients and attempting to mix anyways, but quickly gave that up when the "batter" was really dry and dusty after five minutes, and practically no progress was being made. My suggestion is to throw the mixed wet ingredients back into the microwave for a bit to re-melt the butter and THEN mix everything together. Makes life a lot easier.

+ Eyeball how much of each "add-on" {chocolate chips, dried cranberries, nuts} you need, instead of actually measuring. Preferences differ, so I don't think being precise really matters.

+ After you've scooped your cookie batter onto the baking sheet, take your add-ons and press a few into the top of each cookie. They make the cookies look prettier and more appetizing {instead of just dark brown bumpy lumps}. Don't be like me though and stick the chocolate chips into the cookie, pointy side in. Because the chocolate doesn't melt as much as you think it will. So then you're left with really weird OBVIOUS CHOCOLATE CHIPS all over your cookies. And that's awkward. ): So yes. Pointy side of the chocolate chip OUT.

+ These freeze really, really well. And taste good the day after being baked. And the day after that. And the day after that {if they're still around}. They make for a good travel cookie. Which is good. Since that's what I did. Sent them off to their final destination via weekend USPS. They arrived Monday evening, still delicious {at least that's what I'm told. I could've been lied to, I suppose}.

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Definitely worth making. And since they're oatmeal, they count as breakfast food, right? And pumpkin and cranberry are healthy, too... Sounds like a plan. Excellent on-the-go breakfast. *nods*

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Baked Good #1 for The 23 List.