Crispy Craisin Oatmeal Cookies With White Chocolate Drizzle

I can’t believe it’s the last day of 2015. This has probably the most action packed year – from taking my USMLE exams for residency (part 1 and 2!) to going to Africa to work with HIV pediatric patients to applying for residency (ah, 4th year!) and of course getting engaged.

I’m excited to be done with interviews for the holidays. I’ve flown all over the country and somehow I managed to get through the trail without booking a single hotel – thank goodness for friends and family (and various degrees of separation)!

What’s even more nice is seeing Bryan every 2 weeks through the past 2 months as our schedule matched up. It’s like having a real life fiancé lol.

I spent the early holidays with his family, and of course I always bake for them. B’s mother loves oatmeal cookies, and these crispy oatmeal cookie, adapted from Joy of Baking, are extra special with a secret ingredient to make them crunchy.

Can you guess? They’re rice crispies (or using what I had already, Kashi)!

This is the first year, I didn’t leave out cookies and milk for Santa. I did make cookies – they just happened to be eaten by a certain fiance first.

N: *Takes out cookies hot from the oven*
B: Oh my, I needed to check these cookies to ensure freshness. *eats immediately*
N: Y U eat my cookies already!! Wait for the white chocolate drizzle first!!!! D:

Crispy Craisin Oatmeal Cookies with White Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients
CRISPY CRAISIN OATMEAL COOKIES
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup crasins
1 cups rice cereal (I used Kashi GoLean)

WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE
1 bar white chocolate*
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)

Directions
CRISPY CRAISIN OATMEAL COOKIES: With an electric mixer cream the butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and honey and stir manually until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually pour the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix manually until just incorporated. Stir in the oats, white chocolate chips, and then gently stir in the rice cereal. Cover and refrigerate until firm (about one hour).

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Roll the chilled dough into 2-3 inch balls then flatten the cookies slightly with your palm. Bake the cookies for about 10 – 13 minutes or until golden brown. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.

WHITE CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE
Chop the white chocolate bar roughly and place in a metal bowl. On a double boiler, heat the water to a simmer. Slowly melt the chocolate; add vegetable oil to thin if needed. Drizzle white chocolate using the fork over cookies and let cool to harden.

* Melting White Chocolate 101 (Chowhound)

• Use high quality white chocolate bars. Chips will have stabilizers that affect melting. Only white chocolate that has cocoa butter will melt and can be drizzled – Ghirardelli, Baker’s, and Lindt are suggested options
• When using a double boiler, keep the water only at a simmer. Do not boil the water – if it’s too hot the chocolate will seize. 
• Don’t get any moisture into the chocolate or it will seize.