A lonely bag of cranberries called out to me in the store the other day. Not wanting the cranberries to feel neglected during this festive holiday season, I pulled them off the shelf and brought them home with me. What to do with these beautiful little red gems? Then it hit me—‘tis the season for making Cranberry Christmas Cookies!
Growing up, my mom would make multiple batches of cranberry oatmeal cookies around the holidays. We would pack up these little treats and give them as gifts to our teachers, neighbors, friends, and family. And of course we also kept some for ourselves when we needed some holiday cheer…
I’ve come to associate these cookies with cozy afternoons in the kitchen, Christmas music playing, and the sweet smell of cookies baking in the oven. Even though I wasn’t at home making these cookies with my mom, the taste and the smell of our traditional Christmas cookies took me back and made me feel some of that holiday spirit.
To carry on the tradition of ‘gifting’ these cookies, I took some to the office to share with my colleagues. Despite the fact that we work in public health nutrition, we all appreciate a homemade treat, especially around the holidays. Graham and I have been slowly savoring the rest of the cookies as we prepare to celebrate both old and new holiday traditions with our families.
Happy Holidays from Tasty Easy Healthy Green!
Cranberry Christmas Cookies
Recipe from Sally’s Mom
¾ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
¼ cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
3 cups rolled oats
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped fresh cranberries*
Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in egg, orange juice, and orange zest. Once well incorporated, slowly mix in flour, oats, and ground cloves. Gently fold in chopped cranberries.
Using two spoons, make small walnut sized balls of cookie dough and place on a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake cookies at 350° for 12-15** minutes.
* You can probably used dried cranberries, but I prefer the sweet tart flavor of fresh ones. However, slicing the cranberries into quarters ensures the tartness of the cranberries is not overwhelming.
** I kept the cookies in the oven closer to 12 minutes than to 15. The resulting cookies were super moist, yet slightly crisp around the edges.
Tasty Easy Healthy Green Recipe Ratings:
| Recipe Report Card | Notes About Recipe Ratings |
|
Tasty Rating Four Chefs (Delicious!) |
These cookies are moist and not too sweet. The cloves and cranberries give them a nice Christmas flavor. |
|
Easy Rating
Four Easy Chairs (ABC, Easy as 123…) |
Pretty easy cookies to make. The cranberries can take a little bit of time to chop, but baking the cookies consists mostly of measuring and mixing. Fresh cranberries might be hard to find outside of the holiday season, but they are pretty common during Thanksgiving and Christmas. |
|
Healthy Rating
Two Apples (Surgeon General’s Warning!) |
While there is a fair amount of sugar and butter in these cookies, there are also oats (which are considered a whole grain) and fresh cranberries. |
|
Green Rating
Four Leaves (Mother Earth Approved) |
Mostly all organic ingredients and the egg was cage free. |
[...] gifts with our closest neighbors around the holidays. My mom would bake up some of her special Cranberry Christmas Cookies and in exchange one of our neighbors would give us a batch of her delicious and slightly sinful rum [...]