Healthy Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Whole wheat fruit and nut dropped cookie, sweetened mostly with maple syrup. Good as a "healthier" after school treat. I found the original recipe in Southwest's in flight magazine. I added fruit and eggs and tweaked it to my family's tastes then doubled it to make between 3 and 4 dozen depending on how big you like to make your dropped cookies.

• Ready In: 22 mins
• Serves: 42
• Yields: 42 cookies

Ingredients

• Dry

• 2  cups rolled oats (not instant)
• 2  cups whole wheat flour (you can use bread flour or whole wheat pastry flour depending on how "wholesome" you like your healt)
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 2  cups walnuts (halves or pieces)

• Wet

• 1⁄2 cup  melted butter (1 stick)
• 1⁄2 cup light olive oil
• 1  cup pure maple syrup
• 2  eggs

• Mix in

• 1  cup dried sweetened cranberries (Craisins)
• 1⁄3 cup rolled oats
• 1⁄4 cup turbinado sugar (can be added to wet or dry ingredients if your family is used to sweeter treats, optional) (optional) or 1⁄4 cup brown sugar (can be added to wet or dry ingredients if your family is used to sweeter treats) (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F.
2. To mix dry ingredients- pulse 2 cups oats in food processor until broken into small pieces. Add flour and salt and process until thoroughly mixed. Add walnuts and pulse a few times till nuts are in small pieces unless using already chopped nuts, in which case just mix them inches My food processor is not big enough to make this double recipe so I empty the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl (or my stand mixer bowl if I'm feeling lazy).
3. Next mix wet ingredients- add melted butter, olive oil, maple syrup and eggs to the food processor and process until throughly mixed.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
5. Stir in cranberries and extra 1/3 cup oats until evenly distributed.
6. I use a small (1 tablespoon) scoop with a lever to drop cookies onto pans lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Then I use a fork to squash the cookies flat and even out the thickness (about 1/4 inch) before baking for 12 minutes or until bottoms start to brown lightly.