There’s a charming town in old Kentucky called Versailles that is home to the Wallace Station Deli. This former country store has taken on a new life serving up their famous Inside Out Hot Brown sandwiches, nightly dinner specials and my personal favorite, their delicious baked treats!

Their bakery case is strategically placed inside the entrance showcasing a variety of pies, scones, brownies, bars, and my personal favorite, their giant oatmeal raisin cookies. There’s nothing better than the smell of fresh baked goodies and let me tell you, it’s hard to leave Wallace Station without picking up some cookies for your trip home.

Inspired by Wallace Station’s giant cookies, I’ve crafted a recipe using dried cranberries and pecan pieces instead of raisins. I don’t believe I’ll be baking these very often, because I just can’t stop myself from eating them all! I believe this is my new favorite cookie and I hope you’ll love baking them at home too.

Giant Oatmeal and Cranberry Pecan Cookies

Yield:

• approximately 24 giant cookies

Prep Time:

• 20 minutes

Cook Time:

• 20 minutes (approximate 6 cookies per tray)

Total Time:

• 1 hour 40 minutes (assuming 4 trays)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks at room temperature)

• 1 cup light brown sugar (firmly packed)

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 2 cups old fashioned oats

• ½ dried cranberries

• 1 cup of pecans

• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the room temperature butter until creamy. Add the granulated and light brown sugars, beating on medium speed until light.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.

In a separate bowl stir together baking soda, cinnamon, salt and oats together. Stir in cranberries and pecans (or other add-ins of your choice.) Scrape down sides of bowl and beaters, then mix again.

Stir in flour with mixer on low speed. Blend well.

Scoop out batter using about ⅓ cup of cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Dust fingers with flour and press down on top of each cookie to flatten slightly.

Bake for 12 to 17 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Bake 12 minutes for chewier cookies and 17 minutes for crisper cookies.

Place cookie dough about 6 scoops to a tray. Flatten each cookie with flour dusted fingers before baking.

Bake 20 minutes, rotating tray halfway through the baking time.

Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes before removing from tray to cooling rack.

Tips and Tricks:

To make the original Wallace Station cookies, you could substitute the pecan pieces and dried cranberries with 1½ cups of raisins.

Also, you could substitute some of the cranberries or raisins with chocolate chips.

Get creative with your additions using various nuts you may prefer.

For example: walnuts, cashews or dry roasted peanuts would be delicious in this recipe with chocolate chips, omitting the raisins.

Butterscotch chips would also be great when used with chopped pecans.

I would use no more than total of 1½ cups of ingredients added in to keep the integrity of the oatmeal cookie.

Tools:

I’ve included links to some tools and equipment you might find useful for making this recipe.