Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

 Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
with Pecans and Dried Cherries

We like these cookies made with pecans and dried sour cherries, but walnuts or skinned hazelnuts can be substituted for the pecans, and dried cranberries for the cherries. Quick oats used in place of the old-fashioned oats will yield a cookie with slightly less chewiness. If your baking sheets are smaller than the ones described in the recipe, bake the cookies in three batches instead of two. These cookies keep for 4 to 5 days stored in an airtight container or zipper-lock plastic bag, but they will lose their crisp exterior and become uniformly chewy after a day or so.

Makes 30 – 36 2” cookies.

 

1¼ cups all–purpose or whole wheat flour (6 ¼ ounces)

¾ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon table salt

1 ¼ cups rolled oats (old-fashioned, 3 ½ ounces

1 cup toasted pecans (4 ounces), chopped

1 cup dried tart cherries (5 ounces), chopped coarse

4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks about the size of chips (3/4 cups)

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), softened but still cool

1 cup of brown sugar, preferably dark (lightly packed)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a second medium bowl, stir together oats, pecans, cherries, and chocolate.

3. In a standing mixer fitted with a flat beater, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until no sugar lumps remain, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula; add egg and vanilla and beat on medium-low speed until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl; with mixer running at low speed, add flour mixture; mix until just combined, about 30 seconds. With the mixer still running on low, gradually add the oat/nut mixture; mix until just incorporated. Give the dough a final stir with a rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.

4. Divide the dough evenly into approx. 36 portions, each about 1/8 cup, then roll between palms into balls about 2 inches in diameter; stagger 12 balls on each baking sheet, spacing them about 2 1/2 inches apart. Using your hands, gently press each dough ball to 1 inch thickness. Bake until cookies are medium brown and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will seem underdone and will appear raw, wet, and shiny in cracks), 10 to 12 minutes longer. Do not overbake.

5. Cool cookies on baking sheets on a wire rack for 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.