Dried Apple Oatmeal Cookies-With Dried Cranberries!

This post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you.  All opinions expressed are our own.  Thank you for your support.
​

      One thing that I have in my long term food storage are cans of dried apples.  Dried apples are great to munch on all by themselves, but I got to wondering what other things I could do with them.  I began looking for recipes to use them in.  Many of the recipes, such as for Dried Apple Pie, called for the apples to be reconstituted.  That is fine.  I'm thinking of trying them in my Apple Crisp recipe.  I often reconstitute raisins and dried cranberries when I bake with them, but I thought it might be nice to have a quick recipe to use them in as is. 
​

     Because Oatmeal Cookies are my husband's favorite, I decided to start there and come up with a recipe that he would definitely enjoy.  Not only do these cookies hit the spot, they use other staple ingredients from my pantry, such as oatmeal and dried cranberries.  You could use raisins if you want to, but I love the cranberries with the apples, they almost give these cookies an old fashioned holiday feel. 

     If you would like to reconstitute the apples and craisins a bit, that will work just fine!  To do that, I simply slightly cover the dried fruit with water and bring to a boil, then simmer for just a few minutes.  Drain them and add them to the recipe.  Be sure to drain them, because you won't want all of that extra liquid in your cookie dough.  
     To use the apples dry in this recipe, I crushed them, even though I wrote chop in the recipe.  It is easier to just crush them with your hands or use a rolling pin to break them into smaller chunks.  As they bake in the batter, the apples and cranberries both soften and lend a chewy texture to the cookies. 

     When the cookies come out of the oven, let them sit on the baking sheet for just a minute or two before using a spatula to lift them on to a wire rack to cool! They will be quite tender when they first come out of the oven. 

     My husband really enjoyed these cookies, asking for more! I hope that you give them a try!
​     Click on the recipe to get a printable pdf! 
​

Here are some related posts you may enjoy! 

• Making and Canning Cinnamon Applesauce From Your Juicer Pulp!
• 2-fer-Oatmeal Cookie Recipes
• Canning Apples 2 Ways​
• Friday Favs Apple Crisp Recipe​