Spiced White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

Chewy, sweet and spiced with nutmeg, cardamon and cinnamon. This is much easier than gingerbread cookies but it has the same feels. It makes 3-4 dozen depending on the size so perfect for sharing at cookies parties, office parties and with your neighbors. You can leave out the white chocolate for a less sweet cookie or substitute for dark chocolate chunks if you want. The only ingredient I will champion for is fresh grated nutmeg. Not only does it last longer, but it is so much more flavorful than pre-ground.

Ingredients:

2 sticks salted butter

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

3 cups rolled oats (I prefer instant oats because the texture is smaller. You can blitz your rolled oats in the food processor to break them up.)

1 cup pecan pieces (you can also process these into the oats if you want a finer texture or omit for a nut free recipe.)

1 1/2 AP flour

2 tsp cardamon

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Add the butter and sugar to a large bowl or to the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream the butter and sugar together for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

3. Add the vanilla and 2 eggs to the butter and sugar mixture and continue to mix on high for 1-2 more minutes.

4. If you are pulsing the oats, add them to a food processor and pulse a few times just to break the rolled oats into a smaller texture. If I am using instant oats, I skip this part and just add them directly into the butter mix. If you are using a food processor, add the pecans and pulse until you are happy with the texture.

5. Add the spices, baking soda, and oats to the butter mix and mix with the mixer to combine. Then add the pecans and flour and mix again. Don’t over mix but make sure all the ingredients are incorporated.

6. Add the chocolate and mix in by hand or just a few turns of the mixer to distribute. Let the dough rest for a few minutes while you prepare the baking pans.

7. Line a half sheet pan with a silicon liner or parchment paper. Then use an ice cream or cookie scooper to portion out equally sized balls of dough onto the baking sheets. I use a 1.5 in cookie scooper.

8. Bake for 14 minutes then let rest on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

   1.5 inch cookie dough balls makes about 3.5 dozen cookies. You can also freeze the cookies or the cookie dough balls for baking off later if you want. They may not spread as much if baking from frozen.