Slice & Bake Holiday Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cup rolled oats
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 orange, zested
• ½ cup finely chopped dried dates or cranberries
• ½ cup white chocolate chips, melted, for decorating

Directions

1. Add the oats, flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the oats are finely ground.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and orange zest with a spatula or hand mixer until well combined. Add in the flour and oat mixture along with the chopped dried fruit and stir well to combine.
3. Set out four large pieces of plastic wrap. Divide the dough into four roughly equal portions and drop each onto a piece of plastic. Wrap and roll each portion of dough into a log that is approximately 2 inches thick. Transfer the logs into the fridge for at least 4 hours or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
4. When ready to bake, heat your oven to 350ºF and line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Slice as many cookies as you’d like off a log – each log should give you around a dozen cookies – and transfer to the prepared sheet pan. Using the tines of a fork, poke each cookie two or three times to dock the dough.
5. Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Set the cookies aside on a rack to cool completely.
6. If desired, decorate the cooled cookies with melted white chocolate. You can either dunk the cookies in the chocolate or transfer the chocolate to a zip top bag, cut the corner off, and drizzle over the cookies.