snow day cookies

Walking outside in the sunshine yesterday, it's hard to believe that less than two weeks ago I was enjoying my first snow day in years! Growing up in Minnesota a snow day was a very rare treat. Minnesotans, hardy and accustomed to the worst winter weather, cancelled school only when it was too cold for schoolkids to wait outside for the bus. So I should have been delighted to get a snow day last Monday when New York was drowning under an unaccustomed March snowstorm. And I was happy to have a day off, I really was. But it's been an awfully long winter here in New York.

To make myself feel better about the prospect of wading through slush for the next week (snow in New York never STAYS snow, you see - it spends most of its life cycle as dirty slush, then dirty water) I made some oatmeal cookies, polished off a giant pile of homework, and watched at least eight hours of LOST, my new TV obsession.

These were not just any oatmeal cookies, mind you. They were the oatmeal cookies I'd been thinking about since our field trip to Baked. Crispy outside, chewy inside, they had just enough tart Montmorency cherries, creamy white chocolate, and toasted walnuts to make every bite interesting. These dried cherries, plump and tart, might be my favorite Costco purchase ever, a perfect example of how top-notch ingredients can elevate even a great recipe to the next level. The white chocolate, which I thought I remembered eating at the bakery, wasn't in the recipe from the cookbook, so I added it myself. (I made another batch this week to bring to tutoring, and tried semisweet chocolate - also very yummy.)

The cookies were delicious, and bringing a batch to share with my class the next day made me feel much better about wading through slushy streets to get there. They're good enough, in fact, to make any day feel like a day off - try a batch and see!

Oatmeal Cherry Nut Cookies (adapted from the Baked cookbook by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated is best, but ground can also be used. You can use a Microplane/citrus zester to grate nutmeg easily, and the whole spice can be found at most grocery stores)

1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1 c. unsalted butter, room temp.

1 1/4 c. dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1/4 c. granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

2 3/4 c. rolled oats

1 c. dried cherries

1/2 c. chopped toasted walnuts (350 F for 10-12 min. should toast nicely)

1/2 c. white chocolate chips

Combine flour, soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl and set aside

Cream butter and sugars with electric mixer on medium-high speed. Beat until smooth and butter lightens in color.

Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time. Add next egg only when previous is incorporated.

Add vanilla, beat 5 seconds.

Add half flour mixture, mix 15 seconds. Add remaining, beat just until incorporated.

Use spatula or wooden spoon to mix in oats, cherries, walnuts.

Cover and refrigerate at least two hours and up to three days.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat. Place rounded tbsp of dough on sheet. Bake 12-14 min, or just until cookies begin to brown, rotating after 6-7 min. Let cookies cool on pan for a few minutes, then move to wire rack to cool completely (if you leave them on the pan, the carryover heat will overbake them, and you will get crispy-crispy cookies instead of crispy-chewy cookies). Delicious hot or cooled!