Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Source: Amanda Zadok; Carver, Massachusetts
Yield: Approximately 3 ½ dozen cookies
Ingredients
⅔ cup Butter or Margarine, softened
⅔ cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
1 ½ cups Old Fashioned Oats
1 ½ cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
1 Bag of Sweetened Dried Cranberries (6 oz.)
⅔ cup Chocolate Chips
½ cup Chopped Walnuts
Method
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using an electric mixer beat butter or margarine and brown sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions, mixing well after each addition. Stir in sweetened dried cranberries, chocolate chips and walnuts.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until gold brown.
Cranberry Impact
Cranberries are native only to North America and southeastern Massachusetts is the birthplace of the commercial cranberry industry.
Cranberries are the No. 1 food crop in Massachusetts. The industry supports nearly 6,400 jobs and contributes an economic impact of $1.7 billion annual.
Cranberry growers farm more than 11,500 acres of cranberry bogs in southeastern Massachusetts. With 3-5 acres of support land for every acre of active bog, the cranberry industry protects 60,000 acres of open space.
Learn what's happening on cranberry farms this time of year:
Growers perform off-season maintenance work, including cleaning ditches, pruning vines, repairing flumes and dams. If a prolonged cold period is forecast, growers will flood the bogs with a layer of insulating water. If the ice is thick enough, grower may sand their bogs as part of their routine maintenance program. The winter also provides time for growers to take part in continuing education including earning credits for various licensing requirements.