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Every year I participate in the Belleville Gingerbread cookie walk. That means an entire week dedicated to baking 400 cookies per store (usually I do two stores, but this year might be three), packaging them each individually, adding business cards, and dropping off the cookies to the distribution point.
It is a little early to start baking for the Gingerbread walk, but I am in pursuit of easy cookie recipes that are not going to be the same as 5 other stores will have. I am also hoping to find some recipes I can make ahead of time and either freeze the dough or freeze the finished cookies.
I have been making Gooey Butter cookies for one of the shops, but someone else made them last year as well, so those are out. Last year, I also made Floral Nectar Tea cookies.
Don’t even pretend to be surprised. Lavender is the best! Check out this recipe if you don’t believe me.
Coming up with cookie ideas is always tough. Not all of the shops use the Gingerbread Cookie Committee for the cookie order, so there is no way to know what kind of cookies are being made by those shops. The Cookie Committee makes sure there are no duplicate cookies for the shops they are aware of, but there are so many participants it is hard to come up with cookies no one else will make.
This morning, I spent a good hour flipping through recipe books yet again. The only result was that I wanted some chocolate chip cookies.
Since those are not even ones that I can consider making for the cookie walk, I kept looking at recipes.
I came across a Cranberry Chip Cookie that sounded good. As I read the recipe, I realized they were chocolate chip cookies, with added cranberries and vanilla chips. (Skip ahead .)
I decided to make them anyway. Adding cranberries to chocolate chip cookies is definitely something I have never tried before, so I figured, what the heck. Maybe different enough, and I get to eat chocolate chip cookies.
There is nothing special about the cookie recipe, it is pretty much your standard chocolate chip cookie.
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the egg and vanilla.
Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda, then add to the batter.
Mix in the cranberries, pecans, chocolate chips, and vanilla chips.
Scoop onto the cookie sheets and they are done! I used my #40 scoop to make larger cookies. I use this scoop for everything, like rolling cake pops (see here) and making tropical fruit scones (check those out here).
For the holidays, I would use red and green chips that are vanilla-flavored. But since it is summer. I decided on purple.
After making cake pops, there is usually some candy coating left over. Sometimes there is enough to save for a future use, but sometimes I only have a little bit left. Sometimes it behaves badly, and I don’t want to mess with it again.
Instead of throwing it out, I put the leftover coating in a piping bag and pipe my own vanilla chips. It is a fun way to add custom color chips for any holiday or occasion to cookies.
How cute would pink and blue look for a gender reveal party? Or purple and orange for Halloween? The options are endless.
Once I was able to eat my first three cookies, I was able to determine that these were pretty good! (The first one acclimated the palate, the second one established the foundation, and the third one was the make the decision.)
Thank you, Emily Gilmore! 😉 (Though the tasting may just refer to bites, not whole cookies…)
(shrug)
–Angie
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Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Notes
* Make your own vanilla chips from compound candy coating for a colorful treat. You can also use one bag of Nestle Toll House holiday chips (semi-sweet chocolate plus red and green chips) in place of the chocolate and vanilla chips in the recipe. One bag is 370 g or 2 cups of chips.
Ingredients
- 113 g – unsalted butter, softened
- 98 g – shortening
- 150 g – sugar
- 168 g – brown sugar
- 2 – eggs
- 1 tsp (5 ml) – vanilla extract
- 326 g – all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp – baking soda
- 1/2 tsp – salt
- 170 g (1 cup) – semi-sweet chocolate chips*
- 170 g (1 cup) – vanilla chips*
- 1 cup – dried cranberries
- 1 cup – chopped pecans
Instructions
To Make the Cookies:
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream butter, shortening, and sugars.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl; gradually add to creamed mixture.
- Stir in the chips, cranberries, and pecans.
- Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart (or #40 scoop for larger cookies) onto ungreased baking sheets or baking sheets lined with parchment.
- Bake at 375 F for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. (Cookies spread quite a bit during baking.)
- Cool for 2 minutes on pans before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Recipe from: Best of Country Cookies cookbook
Tea Pairing: China Keemun Black Tea
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