Really Good Soft & Chewy Granola Cookies
Can’t say much more than the granola cookies recipe title. There are good cookies and there are “really” good cookies, so good that you’ll allow yourself to half a dozen in one sitting.
Granola Cookies Recipe
The type of cookies that allow yourself to indulge in eating pleasures without any post-guilt feelings are worth having in your recipe box. And hopefully, you’ll agree that these cookies deserve to be on that list.
Our continuous quest to find great cookies recipes that have both great texture, flavor and unique qualities is never ending. Often times we’ll search for cookie recipes with high hopes to be blown away by their taste. But sometimes we’ll just be satisfied but not over thrilled. Even a mediocre cookie can be good. Don’t get us wrong, we’re not cookie snobs (hopefully, not) but it’s nice to have your baking efforts rewarded with really great cookies.
Soft and Chewy Cookies
This granola cookies recipe came across our radar by chance, thanks to a past shoot we did for Food and Wine. The shoot had many savory dishes, but luckily we had two desserts to style and shoot, one of which were these granola cookies.
Normally during a food shoot, our jobs are not to recipe test. The client sends us finished recipes and we just cook them, style and shoot. So when these granola cookies first came out of the oven, they immediately went to set for the shot. Afterwards, they were shuffled to the side while we continued with the next shot. During break, we grabbed one of the cookies for a quick snack and were all amazed at how wonderful they were!
These cookies are soft and chewy oatmeal cookies with a slightly crispy edge, but with so much more texture and flavor. We’ve made many batches of these cookies and shared them with so many folks. Everyone who has them them fell in love instantly. The original Food and Wine recipe had dried apricots and pecans. But we added more flavors that we love finding in granola: combination of mixed, toasted nuts, different dried fruit, and peanut butter chips.
These are now one more cookie that we now always have to keep the dough on hand in the freezer, part of our emergency cookie craving stash. These cookies along with our snickerdoodles and the chocolate chunk cookies are now required to be on hand at all times. Or at least one or two of them until we can replenish the stash.
Enjoy!
-diane and todd
Many of you have asked how Sierra has been doing since her surgery. Thanks for all the sweet messages and queries. Since her surgery for her torn ACL, she’s been resting and finally gaining some strength back. But it’s 8 weeks of healing so we’re taking it slowly, one day at a time!
And this weekend we were gardening with fierce excitement. We built some new planters for our blueberry plants, harvested a ton of spinach. We also implemented two new trellis for grape vines and planted 10 heirloom tomatoes. Whew! What a satisfying week. Thus, we rewarded ourselves again with these really good granola cookies!
Enjoy,
diane and todd
Oatmeal Apricot Cookies (Granola Cookies)
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200g) dried Apricots, cut into 1/2" pieces (or other preferred dried fruit)
- (Optional) Rum or Kahlua , enough to cover the dried fruit
- 1 cup (100g) chopped Pecans (or other preferred nuts)
- 2 cups (250g) Flour
- 1 teaspoon (5g) Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (3g) Kosher Salt
- 2 cups (180g) Old-Fashioned Oats
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted Butter , at room temperature
- 2 cups (440g) packed Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) Vanilla Extract
- 3/4 cup (125g) dark Chocolate Chips
- 3/4 cup (125g) Peanut Butter Chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Optional-Soak the dried fruit in a bowl with enough alcohol to just cover them.
- Put the nuts on a sheet pan and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until aromatic and toasty. Let the cool for a bit, then coarsely chop.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the oats. Set aside.
- In a mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the eggs and vanilla extract, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Stir in the oat mixture until nearly combined. With a large spatula or wooden spoon, stir in the chopped nuts and the chocolate and peanut butter chips. Drain the dried fruit and stir them into the batter.
- Scoop heaping tablespoons full of the dough on parchment lined sheet pans, placing them about 1 1/2" apart.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned. Let them cool on the sheet pans for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
For those people commenting on the alcohol, it is lost in the baking process and only the rum flavor is left. You can feed these to children!!
This looks like an excellent lunch for my sandwich-hating junior high school boy . . . maybe I’ll soak the fruit in apple juice for him instead, though ๐
I like the chewy texture of this granola cookies.
These look great! ne question though, do you suppose I could substitute coconut oil for the butter if I keep it at a room temperature consistency? Thanks!
I am SOOO excited you shared this recipe! Been pining for them ever since the workshop in January when I stuffed myself with them. Just made a batch and stuffed myself silly with cookie dough. I used dates since I don’t have currants which was a delicious switch. And macerating the fruit in rum…so, so good.
These look delicious. They look like they’re for kids but the rum infusion makes them so very adult! Great for moms during a play date ๐
Those cookies are looking soooo good!! I guess they would be the perfect mid-morning or late afternoon treat… Many thanks for sharing the recipes and those amazing pictures!
Oh, I can always go for a cookie like this! Granola Cookies from @whiteonrice, adapted to be #glutenfree of course!
Hi! Can you share with me the gluten free recipe? That’d be great!
Thanks!
We don’t have a gluten free version. Sorry.
Rum-soaked dried fruit?! Wow. Sounds awesome. I’m thinking I would add some dried coconut to the mix!
Awww poor Sierra :/ Hopefully she’ll feel better soon. At least she’s got some great company!
I had thought about coconut too. If you end up trying it, let us know how you like it.
Sierra sends puppy wags of thanks. ๐
I love these cookies. They look so perfect.
Sending good vibes for Sierra. We just found out our puppy has some issues she will need surgery for at some point. She’s so hyper we can’t get her to slow down and go easy.
Oh yum! I am going to crave these all day!
These are simply perfect! What a great recipe ๐
wow, i was just thinking about taking my boys to dog beach and this would be the best snack. a little baking detour and the boys, me and the cookies will be on our way!!!! sounds delicious!!!
glad sierra is on the mend, really scary when something is wrong with the dogs.
have fun!!
These look crazy good, and I the idea of soaking the fruit in Kahlua sounds intriguing. Thanks!
After all that work in the garden you deserve a few cookies. And those look like the kind of cookies that we all deserve. Thank you!
I love oatmeal cookies that are loaded up with dried fruit and the chunkier and heartier the better. They look wonderful. Rum-soaked gets me excited, too. Pinning!