Loaded Pumpkin-Oatmeal Cookies

Happy Halloween!

I made these cookies over the weekend.  Thanks to the added moisture from the pumpkin, they are a bit softer than typical oatmeal cookies.

I loaded them up with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips, but you could substitute chocolate or butterscotch chips, chopped nuts or raisins.  Whatever you prefer.  Or you could kick up the pumpkin flavor a notch and add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice!

Today's Playlist

• "Sixteen Saltines"........Jack White
• "No Rain".....Blind Melon
• "Joker & The Thief"........Wolfmother
• "No One Knows"......Queens Of The Stone Age
• "Goodbye Earl"....Me First & The Gimme Gimmes
• "California Sun".......The Ramones
• "Last One To Die".....Rancid

Loaded Pumpkin-Oatmeal Cookies

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

Gather your ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

 Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone sheets.  I do this because the cranberries could stick to the metal pans (raisins would also stick) and burn.

The cookies will bake a bit more evenly if you line the pans, but there have been plenty of times when I was out of parchment and I baked the cookies anyway.  It's not the end of the world if you don't line your pans!

Combine the flour, oats, 

 baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.

 Whisk together, then set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.  I did not take a picture of this.

Okay, I did take a picture of this, but it was dark and blurry, as the pictures of the bottom of my mixer bowl usually are.  Does anyone else have this problem?

Add the pumpkin.

 And the egg.  It's down there somewhere, I swear.

 And finally, the vanilla.  Mix well.

Add in the oatmeal/flour mixture that you set aside earlier. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated.

 Lastly, fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.

 Drop onto your lined baking sheets.  I used a huge cookie scoop......used about 1/4 cup of batter for each cookie, and this recipe yielded about 24 cookies at that huge size.

You can make your cookies whatever size you like, the important thing is that they should be equal in size so that they cook evenly.

 Like this.  It took my humongous cookies 20 minutes to cook.  Adjust your cooking time accordingly.  If your cookies are normal, tablespoon-sized drops of batter, 12-14 minutes would be a reasonable expected cooking time.

Enjoy!