Oatmeal cookies packed with dried cherries, milk chocolate chips, and walnuts.
Crispy crunch on the outside, chewy goodness on the inside.
While there are plenty of recipes out there for soft and chewy oatmeal cookies to pamper you on a quiet Sunday morning, our Sleigh Ride cookies inspire rugged individualism. Santa fuels up on these hearty cookies while he’s braving the ice and snow flying through the sky in his sleigh on Christmas Eve.
Ch-ChOW
We affectionally nicknamed these our Ch-ChOW Cookies — Cherry-Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut
It’s like a catchy tune that gets deep into your soul. It’s no one-hit wonder, either… you’ll be making batch after batch. Like the David Bowie song, this cookie recipe went through many ch-ch-changes to get the cookie textures and flavor combinations just right for you. Using milk chocolate chips, instead of semi-sweet chips, really complements the cherries.
Oh Yeah!
Our Sleigh Ride cookies will really keep you going on all your holiday travels — like on hayrides, long road trips, or just cruising over the river and through the woods in your 1961 Ferrari 250GT California:
After the first bite, you’ll be singing… (Doo, bow bow) Oh yeah (Chick chicka Ch-ChOW!)
Don’t let a recipe tell you how many chocolate chips to use. You measure that with your heart!
Sleigh Ride Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature, 2 sticks)
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar (packed)
- ½ cup white granulated sugar
- 2 eggs (large)
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats (aka rolled oats)
- 1 ½ cups milk chocolate chips
- 2 cups walnuts (chopped)
- 1 cup dried cherries (sweetened tart, chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F.
- In a large mixing bowl, whip the butter till it’s pale and fluffy.
- Add the white sugar and brown sugar and beat 1-2 minutes until smooth.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat another 1-2 minutes.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and cinnamon.
- (If using electric stand mixer, switch to paddle attachment) Gradually add the dry ingredients into the large mixing bowl and stir until the dough is mixed evenly.
- Add the oatmeal and stir until the dough is mixed evenly.
- Add the walnuts, milk chocolate chips, and dried cherry pieces and stir until combined.
- Scoop the dough into 2 Tablespoon sized balls and place them on cookie trays lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper, leaving room for the cookies to expand during baking. Flatten the dough slightly.
- Bake the cookies for 18-20 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to sit on baking sheet for 4 minutes before moving them to a wire baking rack and allow them to cool.
Tips & Tricks:
- We recommend sweetened tart cherries, like Montmorency dried cherries.
- Dried cherries can be large, so you’ll need to cut each into 3-4 pieces, otherwise the texture and tartness overwhelms the balance with the other favors.
I am making these right now. I’ll let you know.
How did the sleigh ride cookies turn out for you?
I want to make the cookies for my ten hour drive up to Maine this Thanksgiving.
We hope those 10 hours aren’t all on I-95! If so, you should bake two batches. 🙂 Thanks for checking out our cookies!