The Quaker Oats Guy Goes Exotic

My friend has been writing a blog about online dating. She's hilarious, and I keep checking back to see if there are new posts... but she's been quiet for too long. So I bartered with her - cookies for a post. Of course, that means I get a post out of it too ;)

So I set off to make possibly the easiest cookies in the world. Long ago, I mastered the recipe inside the Quaker Oats box. In my ever-evolving desire to make things a little more interesting, I decided to trade the raisins in for a more Armenian taste - dried cherries and apricots. I don't have real measurements on the fruit, because I just kept adding until it looked like a decent amount. Have I mentioned that I love the dried fruits aisle at Trader Joes?

Of course, you can vary the dried fruit however you want, but I really like mixing two flavors in there... it gives the cookie some depth and a variety of textures. In these cookies, the apricots are a little tougher and chewier, while the cherries puffed up a little while baking and are soft and sweet.

With all the fruit in there, these cookies were very chewy, while also having a nice crumb to them. The tops were pretty smooth, with the occasional fruit piece or stray oat rearing it's lovely head. The undersides, however, were a rough mess of oats such that I ended up eating my cookies upside down to avoid crumbs all over the floor.




Cherry-Apricot Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups uncooked Quaker Oats
dried cherries
dried apricots, chopped

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt and mix well. Stir in oats and dried fruit. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.