WHITE CHOCOLATE CHERRY OATMEAL COOKIES

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies are made by adding white chocolate chips and dried cherries to the most amazing oatmeal cookie recipe ever! These cookies are soft and chewy and the flavors are incredible.

I have to admit that I made these cookie expecting them to be good, but had no idea just how good they would be. My husband and I both just can not stop eating them – they are absolutely incredible! I have always like oatmeal cookies, but I can’t even explain how good these cookies are. And I don’t usually love dried fruit in cookies either, but the white chocolate chip/dried cherry combination is really yummy.

One thing in this recipe that was new to me is soaking the dried cherries in orange juice for about 30 minutes prior to adding them into the cookie dough. This extra step adds moisture to the dried cherries and plumps them up a bit. I think you could probably skip this step and the cookies would still be good, but if you have the time, try it. It really does make the dried cherries softer and juicier!

How to make The BEST Oatmeal Cookies:

After trying out multiple oatmeal cookie recipes over many years, I have picked up several important tips for making the absolute BEST Oatmeal Cookies!

• Make sure that you have enough flour in the dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may need to add a little bit of flour.
• Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
• Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
• Use a cookie scoop! If you want all your cookies to be perfectly shaped and have them all be the same size, a cookie scoop is the way to go.
• Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan – they will just slide right off in perfect shape!
• Don’t over bake the cookies – when I take mine out of the oven, they still look slightly under baked but they will continue to bake on the cookie sheet for a couple more minutes so that’s ok!

What kind of oats are best in Oatmeal Cookies?

You can use quick oats or old-fashioned oats in your cookies- it really comes down to a personal preference. I really love using old-fashioned oats in this recipe, but it’s totally up to you and what type of oats you have in your pantry! If you use all quick oats, the cookies will end up being a little bit more dense and a little bit puffier. I like the texture of old-fashioned oats because it make the cookies a little bit chewier (and also like I am eating real oatmeal which makes it easier for me to justify eating a few of these for breakfast!). You can even use a combination of both types if you’d like!

Ingredients in White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups dried cherries (I had two different varieties of dried cherries which is why there are two different colors – both of them worked well!)

1 cup orange juice

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 bag (12 oz) white chocolate chips

How to make White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

Put the cherries in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the orange juice to a boil over medium heat. Pour the orange juice over the cherries and set them aside for about 30 minutes to soak. Drain the cherries well and pat dry with a paper towel to remove any remaining moisture. Set the cherries aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars together for at least 2-3 minutes, until light and creamy.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for another 2-3 minutes.

Add the dry mixture and mix just until combined.

Stir in the oats, mixing just until they are fully incorporated in the dough.

Fold in the drained cherries and the white chocolate chips, mixing just until barely combined. Do not overmix the dough after you have added the flour mixture!

Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto prepared cookie sheets. I prefer to use silicone baking mats, but parchment paper or lightly greased cookie sheets work fine as well.

Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until the edges just barely start to brown. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies are made by adding white chocolate chips and dried cherries to the most amazing oatmeal cookie recipe ever! These cookies are soft and chewy and the flavors are incredible.

5 from 5 votes

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Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American

Keyword: white chocolate cherry oatmeal cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 36 cookies

Author: Jessica & Nellie

Ingredients

• 2 cups dried cherries I had two different varieties of dried cherries which is why there are two different colors - both of them worked well!
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups butter softened to room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 bag 12 oz white chocolate chips

Instructions

• Put the cherries in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan, bring the orange juice to a boil over medium heat. Pour the orange juice over the cherries and set them aside for about 30 minutes to soak. Drain the cherries well and pat dry with a paper towel to remove any remaining moisture. Set the cherries aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350°.
• Mix the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
• In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars together for at least 2-3 minutes, until light and creamy.
• Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for another 2-3 minutes.
• Add the dry mixture and mix just until combined.
• Stir in the oats, mixing just until they are fully incorporated in the dough.
• Fold in the drained cherries and the white chocolate chips, mixing just until barely combined. Do not overmix the dough after you have added the flour mixture!
• Use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto prepared cookie sheets. I prefer to use silicone baking mats, but parchment paper or lightly greased cookie sheets work fine as well.
• Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes, or until the edges just barely start to brown. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Tried this recipe?Mention @familycookierecipes or tag #familycookierecipes!

How do you soften butter to room temperature?

The best way to soften butter is to set it out for a few hours before you make your cookies. Since most of us (or maybe just me!) aren’t that prepared or don’t think that far in advance, there are a few tricks to softening butter perfectly in just a matter of minutes.

My favorite way to soften butter is in the microwave. It’s definitely fast, but you do have to be very careful not to melt it. Just put the whole stick of butter in the microwave (as long as it isn’t wrapped in foil!) and microwave for about 6-7 seconds. If the butter is still really cold, try another 5-7 seconds and check it again. You may need a few intervals, and if the butter is starting to feel soft, you can shorten the final interval to just a few seconds to make sure it doesn’t start melting.

I actually prefer to use the defrost setting on my microwave – I don’t know exactly what that mode does differently, and it takes a little bit longer (closer to 30 seconds), but it seems to be easier to get the butter to soften without melting.

Why do my oatmeal cookies burn on the bottom but aren’t done in the middle?

If your cookies are always burning on the bottom, it is probably a cookie sheet issue! If you are using really dark cookie sheets, the bottoms of your baked goods will tend to burn before they are actually cooked all the way through. If you use a lot of cooking spray, the same result can happen. I prefer to use lighter colored non-stick pans so that I don’t have to use cooking spray at all. As mentioned above, I have been converted to silicone baking mats over the last couple of years and I love how easy it is for cookies to come off the tray – no sticking ever!

White Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal Cookies are made by adding white chocolate chips and dried cherries to the most amazing oatmeal cookie recipe ever! These cookies are soft and chewy and the flavors are incredible.

For the last several years, we’ve had family pictures taken outside and I prefer those by a long shot. This year, I waited too long and the weather got too cold and rainy (we live in WA!) but I really wanted a family picture with baby since she has been with us for a year and we still didn’t have any complete family pictures! I dragged the family to the mall and they actually cooperated pretty well for this photo shoot. I didn’t really love any of the pics, especially the ones of our whole family, but some of them turned out ok, and at least we now have family pictures that include the little one.

Somehow, family pictures tend to look better and better as time passes – anyone else feel that way? There are pictures that I remember hating at the time, but now that years have passed, I really like them! And even though I don’t love all of our family pictures and they are so stressful on the day they are taken, I don’t regret any of them and am so glad to have photo documentation of our family throughout the years.