Grown-Up Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal cookies are about my favorite but who is to say you have to share them with kids?  Plumping the fruit with alcohol keeps them out-of-bounds for the little ones. (You can always just plump the fruit with orange juice, however, for a juicy raisin without getting "juiced.")

Grown-up Oatmeal Cookies (Prep. time 45 minutes, plus at least a half hour to plump the raisins or cranberries. Makes about 3 dozen cookies)

1 C. raisins or dried cranberries

¼ C. spiced rum for the raisins or 3 Tb. Chambord and ¼ C. orange juice for the cranberries

¾ C. butter

1 C. brown sugar

½ C. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ C. flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

3 ½ C. quick oats

Pour liquor over the fruit and allow to sit for at least a half hour.  Preheat oven to 350.  Blend the sugars, butter, egg, the juice from the fruit and vanilla.  Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda and stir the dry ingredients, a third at a time, into the wet ingredients. Fold in the oats and stir in the plumped fruit.  Drop dough by about a tablespoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 5 to 10 minutes until brown.

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