Very Berry Oatmeal Cookies

Raisins might be the go-to dried fruit for a batch of oatmeal cookies, but I’m fairly certain that other berries aren’t off limits because of it. The variety of dried fruit in these cookies makes them taste lighter, maybe even a bit fresher than your average (if still tasty) batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. I purposely did not include any spices, like cinnamon or cardamom, in these cookies so that the berry flavors would really stand out. A little vanilla to accent the very buttery oatmeal background was all these cookies needed to make them very tasty.

The cookies come together just like any other cookie dough. Sometimes I’ll find that some of the berries want to stick together more than they want to stick to the cookie dough, and if that is the case, simply give the dough balls a little help with your fingers as you shape them and place them on the baking sheet.

My top choice for dried fruits for these cookies are raisins, cranberries and blueberries. You can feel free to use other dried fruits. I’d stay away from things like dried raspberries, which tend to have a lot of seeds even though they have a nice, sweet flavor to them. I like how the chewy fruit matches well with the chewy cookie here, so I didn’t break that up by introducing nuts to the recipe, either. Again, if you want to throw in a handful of walnuts or pecans to add a little crunch, feel free to play around with this recipe!

Very Berry Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups oatmeal (rolled or quick cooking, not instant)
2/3 cup each raisins, dried cranberries and dried blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until mixture is light. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Gradually blend the flour mixture into butter mixture. Stir in the oats and dried fruits.
Drop 1-inch balls of dough onto the cookie sheet, placing about 1 1/2 inches apart so they have room to spread.
Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes, until cookies are just golden brown at the edges.
Cool on baking sheet for at least 1-2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 3 1/2 – 4 dozen