Chocolate chips, oatmeal, spices and dried fruit, these crunchy and chewy cookies have a little bit of everything…
My mom came up with these cookies as a solution to an age-old dilemma in our house:
I was team chocolate chip.
Daddy was team oatmeal spice.
She was team fruit and not-too-sweet.
If she made Daddy’s favorite, I give her puppy dog eye for some chocolate. If she made my favorite, Daddy would bemoan sarcastically how’d “it’d be nice if someone made oatmeal cookies once in a while…you know, if they loved me”…always with a twinkle in his eye.
(I come by the sarcasm naturally, folks)
And if she made fruity cookies for herself, she’d have them all to herself and they’d go stale before she could get through the batch. See, my mom has this thing called, “willpower”. That I did NOT come by naturally.
So to appease everyone, The Great Cookie Compromise was born in the shape of “Everything Cookies”. They’ve got chocolate, nuts, oats, spice, fruit…a little bit of everything. And they’ve been a family favorite ever since.
Key Ingredients:
The main players in Everything Cookies are:
- Oats – Make sure you’re using Old Fashioned Rolled Oats, NOT steel cut oats or quick oats.
- Vegetable Shortening – This helps produce a cookie with crispy edges. Do NOT use butter instead of vegetable shortening.
- Dried Fruit – I prefer dried cranberries in these cookies, but you may prefer golden raisins. This IS something you can play with.
- Baking Chips – Semi-Sweet, Butterscotch, White Chocolate…all are welcome here. In fact, I prefer a blend of all three. As long as the total volume equals 1cup (more or less), you’re good to go.
The Process
This recipe is pretty straightforward and is outlined in the recipe instructions…but I have a couple notes to point out.
Mixing in the baking chips – Once I’ve creamed the fats and sugars and eggs together, I start mixing in everything else. If you wait until you’ve completely mixed the dry ingredients in to add in your baking chips, fruit, etc… you may overmix the dough.
Also, you do NOT need to chill this dough before baking. The dough can go straight from bowl to baking sheet.
Everything Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 cup oats rolled (not quick cooking)
- 1 cup raisins (or dried cranberries)
- ½ cup pecans chopped
- 1 cup chocolate chips (any kind of baking chip, or combination of baking chips works well)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl cream together butter and vegetable shortening. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and extracts. Beat well.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Do not over mix.
- Drop cookies by the heaping tablespoon* on prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 12-18min until lightly browned around the edges for a slightly crunchy cookie.
- Cool for 2-3min on the cookie sheet, and then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recipe Notes
- I don’t like Almond Extract. That’s cool I guess. (I might be judging you). Feel free to leave it out, or double the vanilla.
- I don’t have pecans. Neat! Use toasted, chopped walnuts or slivered almonds instead (or leave the nuts out and make my inner 5 year old happy).
- Can I use raisins instead? Don’t have dried cranberries? No problem – raisins work great in this recipe. I’ve used both regular raisins and golden raisins (because sometimes I wan to feel fancy).
- How long will these keep? Everything Cookies remain fresh for about 3-4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. These cookies freeze well once baked, or as frozen dough balls…
- You can freeze the raw dough – You read that right. You can portion out the dough as if you were going to bake them right away, and then freeze those dough balls. Then you can have fresh baked cookies on demand! Just bake them as usual from their frozen state – it may take 1-2 extra minutes.
Finishing Touches
Everything Cookies are great for storing or sharing – they even make a great gift!
Seriously though – My dad was NORTORIOUSLY hard to shop for, so one Father’s Day, I just made him a double batch of these cookies. I baked about a dozen, and then froze the rest and gave him the frozen dough (explaining apologizing to Mom for providing a gift with strings attached involving her future labor in the kitchen).
….sorry mom. 🙂