Best Thing We Ate This Week: Christmas Cookies

Every year, my dad makes copious amounts of snickerdoodles for Christmas, upon which my family is accustomed to snacking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, the day after Christmas and throughout January. Suffice it to say, like many families, holiday cookie-baking is a tradition at my house (similar to ).

This year, I wanted to get in on the action and make my own contributions to the cookie feast. That's when I whipped up these babies: oatmeal, cranberry and chocolate chunk cookies. OK, so it's a not a secret family recipe (I found it on the Food Network), but they are delicious in that these-might-be-healthy-but-look-at-that-chunk-of-chocolate kind of way.

So instead of bringing you another treat from a Birmingham restraurant or bakery, here's something from my very own Birmingham kitchen. Enjoy!

Oatmeal, cranberry and chocolate chunk cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1, four-ounce, 60 percent cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks

Directions

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment papers and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking power, baking soda and salt. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. With the machine running, gradually add the flour mixture. Then, add the oats, cranberries and chocolate chunks.

 Mix until just incorporated. Using a four-ounch cookie scoop, scoop slightly-rounded mounds of dough into 12 balls. Arrange the dough on the cookie sheets, flatten the tops of each one with a spoon and bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly golden aroudn the edges.