White Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies

Ok.  I will be the first to admit that I'm not a cookie-person.  I would much rather sit down to a cobbler or fruit something than have a plate full of cookies in front of me.  There are multiple reasons for this, I'm sure.  The top one being, I think, that when it comes to sweets, I find it easier to say "no" when it's just not around or when I can take ONE piece of pie and be satisfied instead of 2 or 5 huge cookies.  And when it comes to cookie-dough batter and me, we're like magnets.   So you see why I just don't make cookies very often.

The exceptions are my chocolate chip cookies and now, these.  Of course, for the picture, I accidentally baked them too long so they don't actually look like they're supposed to - all light brown with only a medium brown tinge on the outer edges, but I wasn't about to go and make a whole other batch just to get the picture right!

I love the white chocolate and raspberry combination, but you could switch out milk chocolate if you wanted to.  These are also NOT heart healthy at all.  I did try to "healthify" it a little bit by reducing the butter a little and replacing it with apple sauce, but it didn't do much I'm afraid.  So after my fourth cookie, I put them all in a bag and sent them off with Scot to work. :)  I think I just figured out how to bake and not feel guilty about eating it all!

White Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies
Makes 2.5-3 dozen

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 2 T applesauce (no-sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 c flour
• 1 1/4 c old fashioned oats
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 c white chocolate chips
• 1 c dried cranberries

-- Cream butter and sugars together.  Add apple sauce, egg and vanilla and combine.
-- Mix all dry ingredients together (except the chocolate chips and dried cranberries.)  Add to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
--  Add the chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
-- Drop by the spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet (2 inches apart) and bake at 350 for 14 minutes (until the edges are light brown.  They will look under-done, but don't worry, they'll cook more and then be perfectly chewy on the inside and crispy on the out.  (If you want them all crispy, wait until the cookies are all light brown like I did....)