Since the Fourth of July holiday weekend is approaching, I wanted to bake a homemade treat with an All-American theme. I considered baking sugar cookies and decorating with red, white & blue icing, but decided to wait until next week to try stars and stripes cookies. Today, I was looking for an easy cookie recipe without all the effort of getting out piping bags, royal icing, etc.
Then I remembered the Red,White & Blue cookies that we used to offer every July at Country Cupboard Cookies’ bakery. These chewy, melt-in-your-mouth cookies include a bit of traditional and a lot of flavor. They keep fresh for days and travel well too. (Great for shipping to friends and relatives or taking along to a family picnic)
It’s so easy. Start with softened butter, add white & brown sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Dry ingredients are next with unbleached all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and rolled oats. ( Not quick oats, use the old-fashioned oatmeal)
The cookie dough will be looking like any oatmeal cookie batter. Next is adding the fruits and chocolate. At this point, you can use your creativity if you like. This oatmeal batter is very flexible, so adding spices, chocolates and fruits can be varied according to your taste. Or whatever you have in your kitchen!
If you are baking red, white and blue cookies as I did, you will add creamy WHITE CHOCOLATE CHUNKS, dried BLUEBERRIES and dried tart RED CHERRIES. I buy my dried fruit for baking from a wonderful online company, Nuts.com. They ship fast Nationwide and I love the variety of products they offer. We used dried fruits for our online cookie gifts at Country Cupboard Cookies so that we could bake the cookies year round and always have a good source.
But if you have reliable sources for fresh blueberries, you can substitute those for the dried. Just be careful when you add fresh fruit that you mix in with a spoon or using your hands to avoid crushing the fruit or you will have blue cookies. I’ve never tried using fresh cherries with this recipe. I have used dried cranberries though and they taste delicious too. Cherries seemed more suited for the 4th of July summer holiday, so I went with dried sour (tart) Montmorency cherries.
Once you add the fruits and white chocolate, the cookie batter will be very thick and stiff. That’s the consistency you want. All you have to do now is scoop your cookies, bake and enjoy! You can chill the dough for an hour prior to baking if you like thicker cookies, but it’s not necessary.
I love these RED, WHITE & BLUE cookies. Not too sweet, soft and chewy and so wholesome! The edges are crispy with a golden brown color. Oatmeal, eggs, cherries, blueberries. This sounds like a good breakfast cookie.
Happy munching, I hope you enjoy the recipe!
- 4 ounces butter (1/2 cup or 1 stick)
- 3½ ounces white granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 3½ ounces packed light brown sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1 whole egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- 4½ ounces unbleached all-purpose flour (1 cup)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 3½ ounces rolled oats (1 cup) I use Quaker Oats, old-fashioned
- 3 ounces dried tart cherries (1/2 cup)
- 3 ounces dried blueberries (1/2 cup)
- 4 ounces white chocolate chunks (3/4 cup)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cream room temperature butter and sugars together until well blended.
- Add egg and vanilla and mix together.
- Add flour, baking soda and salt and mix until incorporated into batter.
- Stir in Oats just until blended.
- Add White chocolate, blueberries, and cherries. (Batter will quite thick)
- Portion cookies using a small ice cream scoop or use 2 TBL for each cookie onto a silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet.
- Bake 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Allow to finish baking on cookie sheet.
I love chewy oatmeal cookies with a crispy edge. If you prefer a softer cookie,adjust your baking time by a couple of minutes less.
Super excited to have these recipes. I wish you were still baking…but this is the next best thing.
We miss baking and shipping for our customers too, Melanie. Hope you find some recipes you can enjoy!