Chocolate Chip Granola Cookies

This recipe makes the best cookies! They are crispy and chewy, and the granola adds interesting texture and flavor without dominating the cookie. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup white sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ to 1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 ¾ cups granola, with any very large pieces crumbled
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped nuts, optional (pecans or hazelnuts work great)
½ to 1 cup chopped dried apricots, optional (but delicious!)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375° F.  In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger; stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, stir in the granola, chocolate chips, nuts and apricots. Drop 1 - 1 ½ inch round balls of dough about 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or silpat mats. Do not try to make these without parchment paper or similar baking mat.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are lightly browned. These cookies will still be a bit soft to the touch and seem a bit underdone, but they will firm up upon cooling.  As soon as you pull them out of the oven, transfer the entire sheet of parchment paper or silpat mat to a cooling rack and allow cookies to cool fully (or at least quite a bit) before moving.

Makes about two dozen.