Spiced Oatmeal Cookies! Thick, chewy and packed with rolled oats, cinnamon, cardamom and more! These are a must bake for your family this holiday season!
As I was driving home yesterday, I felt a sense of calm and peace. I love seeing all the leaves changing colors and falling and the crispness in the air. This is probably one of my favorite times of the year because the holidays are right around the corner.
Holiday baking, decorating and planning for the holidays. . I love it all.
I recently got to catch up with my friend, Melissa Bahen, who runs the blog, 
I absolutely love all of Melissa’s stories throughout this book and see why she wants to share all of her family traditions and her Scandinavian heritage with us! Her mother and grandmother were both amazing cooks and Melissa’s mother, extremely creative, “whether she was tole painting decorative plates or carefully illustrating a church newsletter” .. I love it when passions and interests are passed down from generation to generation and I especially love that Melissa will now have this beautiful cook to pass down to her children.
And the recipes?
This Cream Cake with Fresh Strawberries (Norwegian Blotkake, pages 182-184)!! Gorgeous!
The Braided Cardamom Bread, or Finnish Pulla (page 66) is definitely on my to bake list and I can’t wait to try these Ham & Gouda Tea Sandwiches with Sweet Onion Mustard Sauce (pages 24-25).
I absolutely love that this book is filled with delicious recipes and crafts! I can’t wait to try these Mason Jar Citronella Candles (down below). Aren’t they beautiful?
The Giveaway!
One lucky reader will WIN a copy of Scandinavian Gatherings! To enter: simply leave a comment down below and tell us why you’d like to win this book. . OR tell me about your favorite family tradition. Giveaway ends on October 26, 2016 at 12 midnight EST. Good luck!
Now, on to these cookies!!!
What Melissa says about these cookies: “Thin, lacy oatmeal cookies pop up often in my old Scandinavian cookbooks, but I have a soft spot for oatmeal cookies that are thick and chewy. I find them impossible to stay away from, especially warm and fresh from the oven. I gave my favorite oatmeal cookie recipe a Nordic holiday makeover by adding cardamom (considered the cinnamon of Scandinavia), tart dried cherries, and crunchy almonds. And if it’s possible, I like them even better than the originals.”
Melissa’s recipes calls for dried tart cherries, which I did not have, so I used dried goji berries instead. The cookies were still absolutely delicious but you’d better believe I am picking up some dried tart cherries so I can make these cookies exactly as the recipe states!
These cookies were magical and so delicious! I hope you try the recipe soon and ENTER THE GIVEAWAY to win this book!
Spiced Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 cup dried tart cherries
- ½ cup sliced almonds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until blended.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and cardamom. Then add the dry ingredients to the butter-and-sugar mixture. Beat on low until combined.
- Stir in the oats, cherries, and almonds. The dough might be too thick for an electric mixer at this point. If that’s the case, stir in these last additions by hand with a wooden spoon.
- Scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon balls (about the size of a Ping-Pong ball), and place them 2 inches apart on the pre-pared baking sheets. Place twelve cookie dough balls on each baking sheet.
- Bake for about 11 minutes, or until the cookies are set and slightly flattened out. Put the cookies on a cooling rack to finish cooling completely.
*(c)2016 By Melissa Bahen. All rights reserved. Excerpted from Scandinavian Gatherings; From Afternoon Fika to Midsummer Feast 70 SIMPLE RECIPES & CRAFTS FOR EVERYDAY CELEBRATIONS: 70 Simple Recipes and Crafts for Everyday Celebrations by permission of Sasquatch Books.
I just LOVE oatmeal cookies! They always remind me of my mom — she made the best cookies, hands down. What a beautiful cookbook!
Hello!
I would love to win this book because I absolutely love to cook! I also enjoy collecting and reading cook books because it’s interesting to see different techniques and points of view.
I would love to win this book because I’m always testing recipes and I’d love to find some fun traditions for my family
I’d love to win because I love making new recipes for me and my family to try.
OMGosh, this was kismet. I bought a bag of organic dried cherries at Costco at my last trip and have slappin’ hands away, telling the family I’m saving them for cookies. I looked on Pinterest and found like one or two but I wasn’t feelin’ them completely. I love your recipe. Will try it soon.
I would love a copy! What a beautiful cookbook! My favorite holiday tradition involves extended family gathered around the piano while my grandma plays Christmas carols & we sing. Of course, we’ve stuffed ourselves silly before this!!! 🙂
I love the simple elegance of Scandinavian cooking! Wow, the pictures and recipes really are stunning! Winning this cookbook would be such a treat for me because I am a young cook hosting her family in Madison for the holidays and could use the recipes to impress! Additionally, I’m an avid crafter (so much so that I work for Sarah at Revel), and could always use more crafting in my life!
1. I love Oatmeal cookies
2. I love Cardamom and it takes me back to my days of living in Stockholm
3. I would love to win this book so I can make traditional Nordic food from my roots (Norwegian and Swedish).
When I decided to move abroad to Sweden my mom threw me a going away party with all my great grandmothers Norwegian recipes. It was the sweetest thing she could have done. It brought both of us so many memories that I couldn’t wait to move and see what the Nordic food tasted like compared to my great grandmothers.
Lycka till!
Awesome oatmeal cookies! I am curious about this cookbook. A family tradition for us is to plan the holiday meal were everyone is responsible to bring a side. The host does not have to cook the whole dinner! ?
Love this recipe and so will my husband. Oatmeal cookies are his favorite cookies and he’ll LOVE the fall twist on these. ?
I love everything Scandinavian! Ever since I did a report in the seventh grade on Sweden, I’ve always wanted to travel there. We also lived in Astoria OR, they have a Scandinavian festival every year. So much fun:)
I would so love this book!! In fact, if I’m not lucky enough to win I am buying it for a trip I’m taking in November- to gather with my Norwegian family for a reunion and food frenzy! We are making krumkaka, klub, lefse, you name it! This book would be enjoyed by all!
What a lovely book and gorgeous cookie. I love oatmeal cookies and prefer cranberries and cherries to raisins. I’ve got to try this!
I have been wanting to experiment with different foods and flavors lately and I think this cookbook would take me out of my comfort zone and really push me in the kitchen to try something new and exciting!
I’d love to win because I love making new recipes for me and my family to try.
I love this time of year, too! The changing trees and cooler weather are just perfect! As are these cookies…yum! Looks so good, Alice!
I would love to win a copy of this book because anyone who is a friend of Alice’s has to be pretty awesome! She’s one of a kind and so much fun to watch and her food and recipes are fantastic!
This book sounds great, I love trying new recipes and new foods. Our favorite family tradition is Friday night pizza. I make the dough on Tuesday or Wednesday and we each get to create our own pie. My youngest usually goes with cheese and the oldest switches between BBQ Chicken Pizza, Cheeseburger Pizza and Pepperoni.
Love oatmeal cookies and need to try these! They look perfect! This is a great book!
I’d LOVE to win! I just had gatherings of friends for dinner parties three times last week. No exaggeration. I’m always on the look out for new recipes. This looks amazing!
Oatmeal raisin cookies are my weakness. Throw in some vanilla ice cream and I cannot say no! I like the idea of using goji berries, because (like you) I have those on-hand.
I love that the book has a combination of recipes + stories + crafts — all of my favorite things! I would love to add this to my collection!
This looks like a fantastic book! One of my family’s traditions is watching the movie Groundhog Day every year on that day.
Very helpful this cookbook for me as I am a food lover. Also this spiced Oatmeal cookies looks so good Thanks for sharing.
I would love to win this cookbook because that Norwegian Blotkake looks delicious! 🙂 Thanks for the chance to win this cookbook, it looks lovely!
I would like to win to learn about Scandinavian cooking
Just made a batch of the Spiced Oatmeal Cookies and they were so yummy! All the measurements were perfect! I actually halved the recipe b/c 3 dozen is too much for us, I didn’t have cardamon so added nutmeg instead, and then added chopped walnuts instead of sliced almonds b/c we didn’t have it at the house. I will definitely make this again. Thank you!