Place your butter in a small saucepan and melt over medium-low heat. Once melted, allow the butter to foam and sputter and then let it brown. This can take 5 minutes. The white milk solids should turn a light brown and it should smell nutty and toasted. Take off the heat.
1 cup unsalted butter
Pour the browned butter in a bowl and let it cool
While the butter cools you can toast the walnuts. This is totally optional! Preheat the oven to 350℉/175℃ and place the walnuts in a baking dish or tray. Toast for 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
½ cup walnuts
Whisk the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Add the light brown sugar, white sugar, molasses and vanilla extract to the cooled brown butter. Whisk until smooth.
1 cup light brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon molasses
Add the two eggs and mix until smooth.
2 large eggs
Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients along with the oats, cranberries and toasted walnuts. Stop mixing once it's combined.
2 ½ cups rolled oats, 1 cup cranberries, ½ cup walnuts
Place the cookie dough in the fridge for 45 minutes to firm up.
Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Using a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and make sure you have 3-4 inches between each cookie. Bake them 6 at a time on your cookie sheets for 11-13 minutes. I recommend baking them one sheet at a time. You want the edges to have set but the middles will still be slightly underbaked, giving you a softer cookie.
Allow the cookies to chill for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. I have provided a conversion to US cups but please note that I haven’t tested the recipe with this method.Butter: I use European style butter, like Kerry Gold, in my recipes. This will make your finished bake much creamier and richer.Cranberries: You can swap them out for craisins, or raisins, or leave them out altogether.Walnuts: the toasting is optional. You can swap them out for pecans. Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt.Storage: keep the baked cookies in a tupperware for up to 5 days at room temperature. Freeze unbaked cookie dough balls, when ready to bake just bake for an extra minute or two.