Trader Joe’s Oatmeal & Cranberry Cookie Dough

August 22, 2008 | Reviewer: Abi

Photo of Trader Joe’s Oatmeal & Cranberry Cookie Dough Price: $2.99
Serving: 1 cookie, 1oz.
Servings per package: 16
Calories: 110 per cookie
Fat: 7%, 4.5g
Cholesterol: 7%, 20mg
Sodium: 3%, 70mg
Protein: 2g
Carbohydrates: 6%, 18g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 10g
Weight Watchers Points: 2 points per cookie

Trader Joe says: Trader Joe’s Oatmeal & Cranberry Cookie Dough is preformed for 16 perfect sized cookies and is ready to bake and enjoy in a matter of minutes. The cranberries in the cookies add a refreshing tartness to a rather sweet dough. . . these are a scrumptious twist on the more traditional oatmeal raisin cookie.

Abi says: As an adult with a palate accepting of a great many things I still do not understand how anyone could ever think the raisin is an acceptable ingredient in baked goods. Raisins are a form of chewy contamination, destroying the goodness of carrot cakes and cookies and making unfamiliar baked items instantly suspect. Cranberries, on the other hand, are fruity little nuggets of joy, adding delight to any item. I’ve used cranberries in making everything from muffins to cookies to biscotti. I love cranberries.

In Trader Joe’s Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie Dough, the cranberries are present without being overwhelming. There are 2-5 cranberry chunks per cookie and each one is a nubbin of chewy bliss. If you want your cookies cranberried-out, this could be a problem. However, each cookie is only 2 inches in diameter, so the cranberries are appropriately present.

The cookie dough itself is just okay, it has a nice balance of sweet and salty, but the texture and taste of oatmeal is missing, resulting in a cookie version of flabby, overcooked pasta. These cookies, whether baked for just 11 minutes (chewy) or 14 minutes (crispy) fall apart if handled with anything other than utmost care (just like the peanut butter cookies). I want an al dente cookie, one that stands up to a train ride to work and gives me an opportunity to enjoy it in forms other than tiny chunks.

A rather intense investigation revealed that rolled oats are the fourth item in the ingredients list after flour, brown sugar and butter. That might seem just fine until one does some further scouting and learns that the Quaker Oats recipe for vanishing oatmeal cookies uses 3 cups of rolled oats to just 1.5 cups of flour. Why are you skimping on the oats, Trader Joe’s?

The other downside to these cookies is that fresh from the oven they’re sort of creepy. Maybe it’s just a personal thing (like my dislike of baked raisins), but warm cranberries give me the willies and detract from what should be a great fresh-from-the-oven experience.

All in all, Trader Joe’s Oatmeal & Cranberry Cookie Dough is an alright way to make some easy breakfast cookies or an after-dinner dessert, but they don’t measure up to the quality of Trader Joe’s frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. Then again, does anything?

comments

6 Responses to “Trader Joe’s Oatmeal & Cranberry Cookie Dough”

Chavi on August 22nd, 2008

You know what would be good? Oatmeal, chocolate chip and cranberry cookies. MMM. I’m curious about the freshly baked cranberries giving you the willies …
Laurafizz on August 23rd, 2008

Those look…flaccid. Even if they don’t contain the demon raisins, they still threaten them with the cranberries. One hundred and ten calories a cookie hurts me, too. I suppose there’s a reason I avoid reading nutrition labels on my favorite baked goods.

Also: I TOTALLY understand getting the wibbledies from hot cranberries. They have a squoshy texture that does not incite confidence.
Anna on August 24th, 2008

I guess I won’t give you my hot cranberry sauce recipe this Thanksgiving ;).
Rachel on September 8th, 2008

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks raisins are an abomination to desserts everywhere. Raisins ruin perfectly good cookies and cakes.
Chris on October 24th, 2008

I have to disagree with Abi. As does my wife. We think the choc chip cookies are good, but these oatmeal cranberries are the best. Why?
1. First of all, contrary to Abi’s experience, ours never break…..the bottom comes out perfectly crunchy while the center and top are chewy - in my mind, that is the best texture of all and I want all cookies to have that same character. Perhaps this is just a function of cooking time, but I doubt it.
2. We LOVE the fact that there aren’t TOO many oats…..that’s what gives this cookie it’s silky, chewy texture without being too oaty. You want OATMEAL cookies, fine make em from the Quaker Oats box….but the texture of these are very unique and …….frankly, we’d like to be able to duplicate it with homemade…..BUT CAN’T. That alone is what makes these so unusually good.
3. I’m cool with raisins, but the cranberries are fantastic.
I think this is arguably the best premade cookie out there…..but hey, it clearly comes down to personal preference, however, I think everyone should give these a try.
btw, these are almost always harder to find (they run out) than the choc chip cookies in our Trader Joes.
Jim S on November 4th, 2008

If one does not approve of raisins in general, it is questionable whether one should review foods that include the little devils. The fact that one has an inherent disposition opposed to one ingredient makes an impartial or helpful review unlikely.

I might add, I also despise the raisin as a cookie ingredient and melt at the thought of a cranberry.