Currant Date Oatmeal Cookies and the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Whew! That was quite a title! And a total lie too! Because although I did truly make Currant Date Oatmeal Cookies, that’s not what I’m calling them…but I didn’t want to confuse the crap out of you so I made the title pretty straight forward. We good? Oh, and yes, I did make them for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap! Woohoo!! *confetti emoji* *dancing twins emoji* *nail polish emoji*

Ok, now that you’ve read the title, hopefully you get it when you scroll down to the recipe and I’ve named it something completely different. Because although this is a Currant Date Oatmeal Cookie, I call it my “Today Is…” Cookie. Yup, I’m obnoxious and I love a good play on words.

I have made these 4 times now and they’re probably my favorite oatmeal cookie ever. They’re gluten free, of course, and such a mix of savory and sweet.

When I made them for a friend of mine, she pointed out that they almost taste like an oatmeal version of a sugar cookie. And she’s SO right! They kind of taste like a sugar cookie! And yet they’re not painfully sweet.

The savory and spicy flavors of cinnamon and cardamom add just a hint of flavor while the dried currants and dates add a sweet jammy-ness to them (but unlike raisins, their flavors aren’t so pronounced that you know exactly what they are the second you bite into them).

I like to use rolled oats but then pulse them in my blender (I use a Vitamix but any sharp-blade blender will do) so the oats aren’t too large and don’t take over the cookie. I feel like this is the KEY to the perfect texture.

The dates I use are those date pieces that are covered in oat flour. You can find them in the bulk bin of the market. BUT if you can’t find them or have by chance eaten all of yours before you could add them to the dough (which is exactly what happened to me…) then make your own! I chop up Medjool dates and toss them in oat flour (which I made by grinding oats quite finely in my blender). Toss them around until each individual piece is covered, this way you don’t have just one giant clump of date pieces to add to your dough. Brilliant.

And, of course, I couldn’t leave them be. I had to add peanut butter chips. They really melt into the flavor of the overall cookie. Perfection.

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Now about that Cookie Swap.  This is the second year I’ve participated in Lindsay and Julie’s Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. They host it each year to benefit Cookies For Kids Cancer, an OXO based charity. I’ve mentioned that charity several times here because I often make a cookie to promote their spatulas, which were made to promote the charity. I love it.

I messed up big time this year, though. I moved (in case you didn’t know) and in the process, the things I signed up for during that move got ALL messed up. As in, I would type in my new address, auto-fill would “correct” to my old address…and cookies would be sent into the abyss. SO sad!

I was really upset, because I signed up for the gluten-free cookie exchange and was really looking forward to trying some other bloggers’ creations! But, I didn’t receive any.

That’s ok though. I still donated to charity, I still got my Today Is… Cookies sent out to three lucky bloggers, and I still had a full heart after it was done. Totally worth it, every time.

This year, through the cookie exchange, we raised thousands of dollars for Cookies For Kids Cancer, which is just amazing. I love participating and was so glad I did it again this year, despite my mishap. 

Now on to the recipe! 

Today Is... Cookie (currant date oatmeal cookies)

2014-12-14 17:40:42

Gluten-free subtly savory yet sweet cookies that will quickly become your new favorites. Oats are pulsed in a blender before stirred into the dough for a more tender texture, and sweet jammy date pieces and currants meld perfectly with the hint of cinnamon and cardamom. Peanut butter chips add a more buttery and slightly salty taste to round out the profile of this amazing cookie. (recipe makes 16 cookies)

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Ingredients

1. ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick)
2. ½ cup brown sugar
3. ½ cup coconut sugar
4. 1 egg, room temperature
5. 2 Tbs. vanilla extract
6. ½ cup gluten free flour blend
7. 2 cups rolled oats (gluten free)
8. ¼ tsp baking powder
9. ¼ tsp. sea salt (or coarse Kosher salt)
10. dash of cinnamon and cardamom
11. ¼ cup dried currants
12. 1/3 cup date pieces (see note above in narrative)
13. 1/3 cup peanut butter chips

Instructions

1. Prep: in a blender or food processor, pulse your oats until they are slightly smaller and some have turned into coarse flour.
2. In your mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Then add the egg and continue to mix until completely combined. Next add the vanilla and let come together.
3. Stop your mixer, add the dry ingredients (flour, pulsed oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cardamom). Slowly let the mixer pull it all into a dough. When it looks almost mixed (you can still see stripes of flour), add the dried fruits and peanut butter chips and let those disperse.
4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.
5. Use a cookie scoop (1-2 Tbs.) to scoop cookies, well spaced (I cook 8-12 per tray), onto your cookie trays. You can either refrigerate the dough scooped out (flatten each mound a tad into a disc) for a few hours or overnight, or you can bake them straight away (unrested dough will spread more in the oven). Bake your cookies for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown and they look set on top.
6. Let them cool on the cookie tray on a wire cooling rack for at least 15-20 minutes before transferring them off of the tray and straight onto the rack (if you transfer them straight from the oven, they will most likely fall apart). Let them cool, then you can eat them all! Enjoy!

Notes

1. Enjoy your cookies within 3 days of baking, but they can keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

By Melissa @ Treats With a Twist

Treats With a Twist https://www.treatswithatwist.com/