It’s a family tradition to make a variety of cookies for the holidays to pass out to family and friends. In the spirit of that tradition, I’ve started collecting cookie recipes on Pinterest, and baked up a batch of these oatmeal gumdrop cookies, which are another family tradition.

There isn’t much of a secret to making these cookies. All you do is follow a standard recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies but swap out the raisins for gumdrops. In this case, I used the Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies recipe that was under the lid on the container of Quaker Oats, and I think it’s safe to say that this version vanished even faster than the original.

A note on the gumdrops: the easiest way to cut them up is with a pair of kitchen shears. If you have kids that are old enough to be trusted with scissors (and trusted not to eat too many of the gumdrops) this is a great task for small hands. With traditional gumdrops, cutting them in half usually does the trick – you want the pieces to be about the size of the raisins they are replacing. If you are using larger gum drops, as I did with this batch, you may need to cut them into fourths or even eighths. While it may be tempting to add more than a cup of gumdrops, I found that adding more appeared to result in flatter cookies. For this batch I used closer to 1.5 cups of gumdrops, but when I made a second half-batch a few days later I used the recommended amount, and the cookies from the first batch were much flatter than the second batch (although just as delicious).

If you’re looking for more cookie recipes, check out my Christmas Cookies board on Pinterest. There are a number of recipes there that I’m looking forward to trying this holiday season.

Oatmeal Gumdrop Cookies
Adapted from Quaker Oats | makes 4 dozen cookies

1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup gumdrops, cut in half

Preheat your oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar on medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat well. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl, then mix into the butter-sugar-egg mixture. Add oats and gumdrops, and stir to combine. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets then bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets before removing to wire rack to cool completely. Store tightly covered.

*note: for high altitude, the original recipe recommends adding an extra 1/4 cup of flour