recipe: oatmeal cherry almond cookies.

i don't know if i've mentioned this, but i'm not a cookie person. they're not the first baked good i want to eat, nor make. but, my mom wanted oatmeal cookies, so i obliged. i made these from a so-tweaked-its-no-longer-anything-like-the-original-recipe recipe i found on the web (hence, no link, because it's really not the same cookie).

1 c. loosely packed brown sugar
1 c. unsalted butter, slightly softened
1 c. dried cherries
1 c. slivered almonds
2 large eggs
1-2 tbsp. golden syrup (optional)
2 c. self-raising flour
1 1/2 c. flaked oats
1/4 tsp. baking soda

cream sugar and butter. add eggs and golden syrup; mix well. meanwhile cook cherries in water (to cover) in microwave for about a minute to plump them up. discard half the liquid, cool. mix flour, baking soda, oats and nuts together. add cherries and cooking liquid to the wet ingredients; mix well. loosely fold the dry ingredients in, leave batter to sit for at least half an hour (can be refrigerated overnight, but the cookie texture will be different). drop teaspoons of the batter onto a greased cookie sheet. bake 13-15 minutes at 350˚F. cool before storing.

they are soft, a little chewy, and not particularly sweet. i slightly undercooked half the batch, to see if they'd become chewier (not really), then baked the other half until golden brown for crispy edges. i have to confess, i thought these cookies were just okay. other people loved them, though, and my mom liked them enough to request a second batch.