Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies

By Maria Lichty

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I love baking all year long, but holiday baking is my favorite! It gives me an excuse to make massive amounts of treats to share with friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, anyone and everyone! And I am even more excited this year because my handsome husband gets to help! Yahoo!!

I go into mad baking mode. I turn on the holiday tunes and spend hours and hours in the kitchen. I can really belt out “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree.” 🙂 It is so much fun!! And when the baking is complete, I get to package my goodies in cute bags, boxes, and tins with festive colors and ribbons!! Oh, I am getting excited already!!

This year my baking “to do” list is still not completely finalized. I keep changing my mind on what I want to bake and give out.
There are too many great recipes out there. I do have my standards that I will be doing, but I am going to add in some new treats this year.

I recently tried a new cookie recipe and it might make the holiday list. I made Cranberry Orange Oatmeal cookies and they are so good and so festive
!

To bring out the orange flavor, I soaked the dried cranberries in orange juice for ten minutes and then drained them. I also added in orange zest. The flavor was amazing! I love cranberry and orange together. The oats made the cookies nice and chewy.
..and they stayed soft, my favorite kind of cookie!!

I know the holidays are meant for splurging, but these cookies are actual
ly healthy!! There is so much flavor going on you won’t be able to tell though!I promise…you will love these!! And if you live close, beware, you might be receiving these in the near future:)

I am submitting these to Susan at Food Blogga, who has started a collection of Christmas cookies. Be sure to go to this site for lots of great holiday recipes!!








Cranberry Orange Oatmeal Cookies

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ cup chunky-style applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
Zest of one orange
1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup dried cranberries
½ cup orange juice

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the dried cranberries in a small bowl. Pour orange juice over the berries and soak for ten minutes.
  2. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined. Add egg, applesauce, vanilla, and orange zest, mix until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Drain the orange juice from the cranberries and mix them into the dough.
  3. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden and just set, about 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool them completely.


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Maria

I'm Maria and my husband is Josh. We share a love of cooking, baking, and entertaining. We enjoy creating recipes that are simple, fresh, and family friendly. We love sitting around the table with good food, good conversation, and good friends and family! Our kitchen is always open!
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  1. great cookies!!! my favorite oatmeal plus in season’s cranberry!
    Do you give away your cookies to your friends? how would you wrap it as gift?
    I’m thinking baking cookies as holiday gifts as well.

  2. Those cookies look great. I agree, cranberry and orange make a great combination. Have fun with all your holiday baking!

  3. Oh, how I WISH that I lived closer to you so that I could possibly be one of the lucky recipients of your cookies! Cranberry and orange is one of my favorite flavor combos! These look delicious, and I love that they are healthy, too! Oh, and I didn’t realize that you are newlyweds! I know that this Christmas will be extra special and fun — I still can remember our first married Christmas together, decorating our first tree, etc. Great memories!

  4. Good idea soaking the cranberries in the orange juice. I agree they are festive and I bet the taste as amazing as they look!

  5. Such a classic combo! Well done 🙂 I must confess I love holiday baking too, but it’s kinda selfish– I feel better about myself spreading the calories around 😀

  6. My mom taught me that trick about soaking the cranberries in oj. It really punches up the flavor, doesn’t it? These oatmeal cookies sounds amazing, and they’re a delightful addition to Eat Christmas Cookies! Thanks!

  7. Wow, these sound just delicious. I too love cranberry & orange flavors together! I'm sure you'll have very happy neighbors this year 🙂

  8. I love love love the new photo of you and your hubby! Beautiful couple!
    And the cookies arent too bad either!!! Love the OJ soaked cranberries!

  9. Maria,
    I have a cranberry orange bread in the oven right now!!!
    I know, I know, it’s supposed to be salad week at my house!
    Stacey

  10. Looooove the new pic on the blog, you are gorgeous! We are in the same zone. I just made these but with dried cherries and added chocolate chips!

  11. Sounds like we would make good kitchen buddies- I love holiday baking the most too. These cookies sound amazing- I love cranberries and orange.

  12. These sound wonderful. I love cranberry and orange together too!
    They are similar to an Oatmeal Cranberry Orange Biscotti that I make every holiday. I like your chewy version… I will have to try them!

  13. LOVE the blog refresh! The new design is so sweet – and yes I DID notice your little ladybugs on the tablecloth. Cranberry and orange is so nice together and I’ll take a batch any way I can get them. 🙂

  14. wow -those are some great looking cookies you made there. And love the flavor combinations! This will be a great Christmas for you both! I hope you have a lifetime full of wonderful Decembers!

  15. I can’t wait to start on my holiday baking too! Still trying to figure out how to package up the cookies though. Anyway these look delicious! I can imagine the addition of orange is yummy.

  16. I love holiday baking too! I’ve been having a great time already. I love your wedding picture on your blog. It’s so pretty! Your cookies look great. I’ll have to try this recipe.

  17. i love to “sing” certain christmas songs, too, as long as no one’s around. i’m not sure what i do can legitimately be called singing. 🙂
    meanwhile, awesome cookies. cranberry and orange simply belong together. 🙂

  18. The whole time I’m reading this I’m thinking “GET OUTTA MY HEAD!!” For the past few weeks, I’ve been cranking the Christmas music up LOUD while I bake. My mom and I do Christmas cookies every year. This year I really wanna try out some new cookies along with the old stand-bys that people expect from us (our meticulously decorated sugar cookies especially!). Today I tried out a recipe for Dorie Greenspan’s “World Peace” Cookies. I’ll post the recipe soon. I still have the Christmas music playing! 😀

  19. THese look great and perfect for the season. I’m baking like crazy for Christmas and really need to stop myself. I have several different kinds in the freezer and I know that I want to bake at least 5 more different ones. Like you, I keep changing my mind! The cookies are going to be stacked mighty high on the trays this Christmas. :o)

  20. Those cookies look so good! I have been wanting to try making some oatmeal cookies and using cranberries is a good idea.

  21. this is very similar to a recipe i tried from annie’s eats that is on my blog…the cranberries are soaked in the eggs to plump up but i like your idea of using OJ instead. these are some of my favorite cookies – try them with white chocolate chips, it’s so good!

  22. Wow! I love this recipe! I think I like it better than mine. I will give it a try. Thank you for stopping by and visiting. I love finding your blog! I'll be back!