White & Dark Chocolate Cranberry Cookies with Oats & Pecans

Sometimes I just need to sweeten up my day a bit with some fresh, warm-from-the-oven cookies.
I love the warm way the house smells when I'm baking, and it's nice to know I will be welcomed in with a few bites of some homemade goodness.  I throw whatever is leftover in the freezer, and then have quick homemade cookies on hand if company stops over, or whenever my sweet tooth / bec sucré calls again.

I bake so much and often, I honestly don't recall when we last ate a store-bought sweet!
Why bother, when you can enjoy all-natural, preservative-free goodness at home, which always tastes so much better, you know exactly what's it in, and it's free of shelf-stabilizing chemicals, colorings, or other completely unpronounceable (and unhealthy) ingredients.

If you're going to indulge, you may as well do it with the best quality-made treats, right?  
If I learned anything while living in France and was trying to Frenchify myself, this is it -- Keep it pure, natural, and handmade from the finest-quality ingredients.  You get out of it what you put in, and can really enjoy every bite so much more when it's been baked with love and in a home kitchen rather than spat out of some sterile industrial machine somewhere far away.

These quick and easy-to-prepare cookies are exactly the way I like them -- chewy, moist, chocolatey, with the crunch of pecans and tart bite of dried cranberries, they're colorful and made slightly healthier than the traditional chocolate chip cookie, with the addition of flax and oats.
You can make them even healthier if you like, by substituting 1/2 cup or so of whole wheat flour to cut down on the basically non-nutritive AP flour, or feel free to throw in some hemp or chia seeds.

Either way, these are really delicious, and I prefer mine with a glass of creamy (and SUPER good for you) hemp milk.

I always use sea salt when I bake to provide contrast and maximize the sweetness, and also add a bit of coffee or espresso to enrich the deep flavors of chocolate.
The pops of red cranberry here & there make these a pretty lil' cookie for Valentine's Day, that you can feel good about baking up with love for all the sweeties in your life.

Enjoy!
XOXO

White & Dark Chocolate Cranberry Cookies with Oats & Pecans
Makes ~3 dozen cookies
Printable recipe here

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (infused with a vanilla bean, if possible)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract 
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats (I used steel-cut)
2 TBS ground flaxseeds
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of sea salt
1 TBS instant coffee granules 1/2 cup dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped raw pecans
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375F.  Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray & set aside.

Combine sugars, butter, and vanilla together until creamy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.
Add all dry ingredients and mix well.  Stir in both kinds of chocolate, pecans and cranberries.
Drop by rounded tablespoon-fulls onto prepared sheets & bake in preheated oven for ~9 minutes, until golden brown on edges.  Allow to cool slightly, remove from baking sheet and enjoy fresh and warm from the oven.

Image Sources | All images can be found on Remember when we lived in that castle...? Pinterest Food Board |