I have had an ongoing love affair for many years and my husband knows it.  I love making dishes with cranberries and he and our sons love eating them.  It started when I was a kid and my mom taught me to make cranberry relish.  Delectable fresh, cooked, spiced, you name it….I have loved them all.

One of my favorite is pairing them with molasses.  Each is a bold flavor on their own, but together they are very complementary, letting the best shine through.  Spice cookies generally use molasses as the sweetener, why not invite the cranberry to the party?  Up the game with some oats to make them a bit more satisfying and now you are talking my language.  I halved the cranberries this time, but you could also give them a quick chop with your processor.  It’s good either way, but the chop will make the cookies a bit more pink overall.

I had to hurry a bit with my shots tonight…..my subjects were disappearing fast. (Thieves abound!)

You’ll need:

1 cup fresh cranberries, halved or roughly chopped

1/4 cup raw sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp fine grain salt

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup raw sugar

3/4 cup softened butter or shortening

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Combine cranberries and 1/4 cup of raw sugar.  Set aside

In a medium bowl, mix both flours, spices, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In your mixing bowl, cream butter (shortening) with molasses and 1/4 cup raw sugar.  Add eggs and beat until well combined.  Add dry ingredients, cranberry/sugar mix and oats.  Mix until incorporated.  Using a 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop place dough onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Press slightly with a spatula and sprinkle with raw sugar.  Bake for 11 minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and cool completely on wire racks.  Chase away all cookie thieves and hide them where only you can find them. Alright….share them if you must! Enjoy!