This wonderful event, in it’s second year, is the brain child of Andrea of Andrea's Recipes, but this year is being organized and ran by Sandy of At the Baker's Bench.
How I got asked to be involved with this incredible group is beyond me but all the thanks goes to Kelly of Sass & Veracity and after last year I sure earned my way in the hard way! There are 10 of us that have decided to do The 12 Days of Cookies – A bon appétit cookie extravaganza. We will be choosing, baking, tasting, blogging and sharing with you a cookie a day for the first 12 days of December.
These cookies are coming from bon appetit's Holiday Cookie-a-Day Slideshow.
These are my partners in crime. We will all be choosing different cookies and surprising each other. How fun is that???? Be sure to check out their selections for the day!
Andrea of Andrea's Recipes
Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dogs
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker's Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project
For Day 4 of the 12 Days of Cookies I choose to make these flavorful little ones because after Day 3’s disaster with a rolled and cut cookie I was taking no chances at all!
Really glad too. These are delicious and decidedly a very adult cookie! They have fresh and dried cranberries in them as well as lots of orange zest and then to top all of that off you add fresh ginger to the mix! Just a wonderfully full flavored cookie. The only thing I changed was adding pistachios. For some reason I can’t find any plain just the really salty ones so I use pecans and skipped the walnuts as well. I also added more orange zest after reading the other comments on the recipe.
Cranberry-Orange Drop Cookiesyield: Makes about 48Colorful bits of cranberries, walnuts, and pistachios make these simple cookies sparkle for the holidays.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (packed) dried sweetened cranberries (about 10 ounces)
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
- 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 3/4 cup chopped unsalted natural pistachios
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
Directions:
Butter 3 baking sheets. Combine dried sweetened cranberries and orange juice in small bowl. Let stand until dried cranberries soften slightly, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Whisk all purpose flour, ground cinnamon, baking powder, ground ginger, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl until just blended.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat room-temperature butter and golden brown sugar in large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg, minced ginger, vanilla extract, and grated orange peel and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour-spice mixture. Stir in chopped walnuts, chopped pistachios, coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries, and dried cranberries with any juices that have accumulated.
Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing tablespoonfuls about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies, 1 baking sheet at a time, until golden and almost firm to touch in center, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool cookies completely. (Cookies can be made 2 days ahead. Store cookies in airtight container at room temperature.)
Would I make these again? Yes I would and that is so refreshing after yesterdays cookie fail! These were really, really good and quite adult like. I loved the pecans in them and the fresh cranberries and ginger. Really good…
