Cranberries Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

I have been searching for good oatmeal cookies with nut and fruit for a long long time.  Every time when I try a new oatmeal cookies recipe (except the anzac biscuits), none of my family like it!  I end up eating them all by myself.  When this happen, I just feel that I am the lousy garbage bin!  Finally, I find this at Ina Garten's cookbook from the library.  Like me, she has been looking for good oatmeal cookies recipe for a while.  In her recipe, she uses pecans and raisins and I substitute them with walnut and cranberries because I have none of them in my pantry.  This time, I don't need to eat them all by myself as my family all grab a few and the cookies are gone in a flash!  

Cranberries Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

(make 35)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups walnuts

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter at room temperature

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon castor sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

3 cup rolled oats or old-fashioned oatmeal

1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180c/350F.  
2. Place the walnuts onto a paper lined baking tray, bake for 5 minutes or until crisp.  Let cool then chop coarsely.
3. Beat butter, brown sugar and castor sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs to the mixture one at a time, then add in vanilla essence.
4. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in another bowl.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.  Add oats, cranberries and walnuts until just combined.
5. Place a heap tablespoon of dough onto the paper lined baking tray.  Flatten slightly with a fork.  Bake for 20 minuted or until lightly brown.  Cool on the rack.

Source: modified and adopted from "bared foot contessa - back to basic" from Ina Garten.