Raspberry Crunch Cookies

These cookies have a great raspberry flavor, due to the dried raspberries, the raspberry jam, and the raspberry extract! I got the recipe from the Oatmeal CookieBlog (I printed out about 20 recipes to try because they look amazing and some are different - like Earl Grey cookies...hmm?) Here's the link to the recipe on his blog. This recipe makes 4 dozen cookies, so you can halve it to make only 2 dozen if you would like. Also, it is a little expensive to get all the ingredients for these cookies, since you most likely won't have them sitting around (at least I didn't). Raspberry extract was rather hard to find -- I finally found it at TOP Foods after trying several other grocery stores. The dried raspberries I found at Whole Foods (I used Just Tomatoes brand with no added sweeteners). But, even after all that, these cookies are fairly simple to make and bake up beautifully. They would be excellent paired with some vanilla bean ice cream. I just might have to go get some...

Raspberry Graham Cracker Crunch Cookies
Creamables:
2 sticks butter (or ICBINB sticks)
2 cups dark brown sugar

Wet Ingredients:
1 egg
1/3 cup raspberry jam
1 tablespoon raspberry extract
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
4 cups dried raspberries
2 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers
2 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies (or any puffed rice cereal)
1 1/4 cups [white whole wheat] flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Topping:
3/4 - 1 cup turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 350*F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients and whisk together until smooth. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well-incorporated. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Shape dough into balls - about 2 tablespoons each. Roll each dough ball evenly in turbinado sugar. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove cookie sheets from oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.
A variation I thought of for next time: skip rolling the balls in turbinado sugar and bake as normal. When cooled, drizzle cookies with melted white chocolate. Yum!