High Altitude Cranberry Almond Oatmeal Cookies
Thick and chewy cookies with a hearty oat texture, full of toasted almonds and sweetened dried cranberries.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 tsp "old-fashioned" molasses (NOT Blackstrap)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp almond extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground cloves
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ cup raw almonds, finely chopped
- ½ cup sweetened dried cranberries
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally. When the butter starts to foam, and nutty golden brown solids have formed at the bottom of the pan, the butter is done. Scrape the browned butter, including all the browned bits, into a mixing bowl. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar and molasses to the butter, and mix until well combined – you can use either a stand mixer, hand-held mixer or mix the dough by hand.
- Beat in the egg, vanilla and almond extract until the mixture is smooth and ribbony.
- Separately, combine the flour, oats, salt, baking soda and spices. Add the dry ingredients, along with the almonds and cranberries, to the butter mixture and mix until all the dry bits are incorporated.
- Divide the dough into 12 portions (use an ice cream scoop/cupcake scoop to measure the portions). Shape each portion into a ball, then flatten the balls with the palm of your hand to about 1/2 inch thick. (If you don't flatten the balls, they won't spread enough as they bake).Chill the flattened dough balls in the refrigerator for 20 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position the oven rack in the center of the oven. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place the chilled dough balls 3 inches apart on the baking sheet, and bake for exactly 8 minutes. The cookies will be just set around the edges, with a light golden color, and a gooey center. They will continue to cook and set up after you take them out of the oven, so DO NOT OVER-BAKE, or you'll end up with dry, crumbly cookies.
- As soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter (one that's larger than the circumference of the cookies), and "scoot" it around the hot cookie to pull in the edges – this will give you a perfectly round cookie.
- Cool the cookies for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Leftover cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days, or wrapped and frozen for 3-6 months.
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