Cranberry Orange Cookies

The house is officially occupied again! We’ve all made the pilgrimage back to NJ for Christmas, and the holiday shenanigans have officially started. We barely had time to remove the thin layer of dust on the furniture and crank up the heat and hot water before it was time to break out the butter and crank out six dozen cookies for the annual neighborhood cookie exchange. Knowing that the chocolate chip, peppermint, and sugar cookies would probably already be covered, we wanted to do something a little different this year. These cranberry orange cookies fit the bill. They’re slightly tart from the fresh cranberries, off-setting the sweetness of the cookie dough.

Recipe Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grab those cranberries and give them a rinse if using fresh. Chop them up. Now would be a good time to employ a food processor. The old-fashioned way is fine, but those suckers tend roll around and end up on the floor if you’re not careful. Go for the food processor if you’ve got it. Set the chopped cranberries aside for later. In a large bowl or mixer, add the two sugars. And the butter. Lots of it. Normally, I would be severely disturbed by this amount of butter, but this recipe makes about six dozen cookies, so it gets distributed. Plus, the cranberries make them sort of healthy. Ahem. Beat it all together until smooth. Beat in the egg until well combined. Then zest an orange. …and beat it in along with the juice and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, until well combined. Then stir in the cranberries. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well-combined. Finally, drop about 2 teaspoons of dough per cookie on a baking sheet, and space them at least 1 ½ inches apart. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are just slightly golden.