Chocolate-Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cranberries (slightly adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

Oh my, are these cookies ever good! I made them this past week end and my husband and I both couldn't stay out of them! I love oatmeal cookies any way, but these are the best I've ever eaten. Of course, coming from Cook's Illustrated, there were a lot of instructions to read through. They said to use chopped bittersweet chocolate, but when I went to the store, they were out. So I went with semi-sweet chocolate chips, which I had on hand. I used light brown sugar, instead of the recommenced dark brown, and dried cranberries instead of dried cherries. The toasted pecans really added wonderful flavor to these cookies. The original recipe is called "Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries". I tried to follow their directions fairly close since this was the first time making these. I still managed to over bake the cookies a couple of minutes. I've checked my oven temp and it is correct, so I'm not sure why there was such a discrepancy in baking time. Maybe because I have an electric oven, but I really don't know. However, these cookies were still delicious, just a little more crisp than intended. Cook's has 2 pans of cookies baking at the same time on upper and lower-middle oven racks, and then rotating them and switching racks. That was a fair amount of door opening during baking. These are huge cookies, using 1/4 cup of dough for each yummy cookie. This recipe makes 16 humongous, delicious cookies, which, I have convinced myself, are really tasty for breakfast! Don't you agree? CHOCOLATE-CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES with PECANS and DRIED CRANBERRIES
(adapted from Cook's Illustrated)

1 1/4 cups unbleached, all purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 1/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats (3 1/2 ounces)

1 cup toasted pecans, chopped (4 ounces)

1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped (5 ounces) Cook's Calls for dried cherries

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Cook's calls for 4 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate chunks)

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened-12 tablespoons

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (Cooks calls for dark brown)

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven racks to upper and lower- middle positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large 18x12 inch baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Whisk flour, baking powder, sod and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl,mix the chopped pecans, cranberries, chocolate chips and oatmeal together.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar together until creamy with a mixer. They used a stand mixer, but I had to use my hand mixer. Add egg and vanilla and beat on low speed until mixed well. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and mix until just combined.Then gradually add oat/nut mixture; mix just until incorporated. give dough a final stir with a spoon to make sure it is mixed well.

4. Divide dough into 16 pieces, each about 1/4 cup. Roll each piece into balls and place 8 balls on each baking sheet about 2 1/2 inches apart, staggering them so they won't touch when baking. Using your hand, press each dough ball to 1 inch thickness. Bake both sheets, 12 minutes, rotating them front to back, and top to bottom. Then continue to bake cookies until they are medium brown and edges have begun to set but centers are soft and seem under done, and wet and shiny in cracks. This is supposed to be 8-10 minutes longer. Do not over bake. Enjoy these awesome cookies!

NOTE: To toast pecans, place on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for 4-5 minutes. Watch closely!

Here is the link to the original directions, but Cook's may not keep this open for long.