My Version of the Whole Foods Jumble Nut Cookie

Stress Baking!

So my favorite cookie is called the Jumble Nut Cookie from Whole Foods.  It's basically a "kitchen sink" type cookie, or a garbage cookie as my brother would probably call it.  Their version has a few types of chocolate (including white- ew), a couple kinds of nuts, oats, raisins, cranberries, and we always think there is coconut, but there really isn't any (I checked on Whole Foods' nutrition website).   It's in the bakery, where you grab a piece of waxed paper and pull one out of the display.  I would always try to find the one with the least amount of white chocolate.

In the stages of quarantine stress, I had hit the stress baking level on Thursday.  It is Monday and there are still a few of these cookies left.  This recipe is great because it makes only 16 regular sized cookies.  This would have made about 6 Whole Foods sized cookies.  They're that big.  If I ever buy one while I'm running to the salad bar for lunch (I wonder when I'll ever get to a salad bar again), I try to make it last at least two days.  It's a challenge, and it's usually pretty hard and crumbly on the second day, but I try to have some restraint.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
110 grams unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I like the 60% Ghiradelli- they're big!)
1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (Ghiradelli has the best minis)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans (you can use walnuts and almonds, or mix them- pecans were all I had in quarantine)

Directions:

You will need to soften your butter, but if you don't have the time or just realized you wanted to start baking (like me), you can use the mixer softening method.  Cube up the butter and beat it with the electric mixer until it's softened.  That's literally it.  I find trying to use my microwave's "soften butter" button yields a half cold/half melted situation, which I guess at its average is softened, but that melted side is really a bummer, and not right for the creaming stage.

So to the softened butter, cream the two types of sugars.  There are two types- but overall, that's not a lot of sugar compared to most recipes.  I don't love a sugary cookie, and I tend to reduce the amount of sugar in any recipe.  I've done that for you here.

Add the egg and vanilla, mix until fully incorporated.  Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl and that weird bump at the bottom of a Kitchenaid mixer bowl.  Stuff always gets stuck around that bump.




















Notice that I haven't asked to preheat the oven yet- that's not a mistake.  Keep reading.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, spices, salt, baking powder, baking soda, oats).  A whisk works well here at incorporating everything.  It's not a lot of flour, but I suppose you can also use whole wheat flour if you have to.

  

Add the dry ingredients all at once into the butter/sugar/egg/vanilla mixture.  Mix at low speed, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.  Once the dry ingredients are *almost mixed all the way through, add the chocolate chips, nuts, raisins, and cranberries.  Doing this while you still see spots of flour ensures that this doesn't get overmixed and tough. Mix on low to incorporate, or you can use a wooden spoon at this point.  If using the kind of stand mixer that has a hinged top, make sure it's locked whenever mixing something this thick!

Next, use a medium scoop to portion out the cookies onto a tray or plate lined with foil.  The scoop I used made 16 cookies.  These will rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.  I suppose you can freeze it now too, but I haven't tried it.

About a half hour before you want fresh baked cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  America's Test Kitchen always taught me to preheat the oven for at least 10-15 minutes.  So that's 10-15 minutes AFTER the beep of your oven tells you that it has reached temperature.  This is because your oven's sensor is in one spot (it varies depending on the oven), and while that spot may be at 350, the rest of the oven may not be.  10-15 minutes after that beep ensures that the entire oven is at the right temp.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper and arrange the cookies so that they are about 3" apart from each other.  Bake for 10 minutes, then pull out and smash the balls of dough slightly with the back of a spatula.  Since we're baking from a cold dough, and that there's not much cookie dough to chip/nut/dried fruit ratio, there isn't a ton of spread.  Bake for another 5-6 minutes.  You want these to be golden on the edges.  Don't overbake!  We don't want a rock hard cookie.  There should still be a little give on it.

Transfer the cookies still on the parchment to a cooling rack.

After these cookies have cooled, if you want to have a melty and soft cookie experience, pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.  Enjoy!