Cranberry Chocolate Nuts Cookies

It's been a long, long time since I last baked cookies, not counting those Chinese New Year goodies. I have been baking mainly cakes and it's nice to get back to baking cookies. I have only baked double chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, peanut butter and coffee crunch cookies so far. Not so many varieties compared to my cakes galore.

I can't remember where I get this recipe from. The ingredients - cranberries, chocolate chips and macadamia nuts appeal to me. I did not have that many macadamia nuts with me and so decided to throw in mixed nuts like almond, cashew and pistachio. I love the resulting taste of the cookie - tartness from the cranberries, a little sweetness from the chocolate chips and the savoury crunchiness from the nuts. I did not have a lot of chocolate chips in my fridge (I thought I have a packet) and so did not follow the recipe in this aspect. But it suited me because I do not like loads of chocolate chips in my cookies. I prefer nuts.

Ingredients:

360g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
226 grm butter – room temperature
220g packed brown sugar *
50g sugar *
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped toasted salted macadamia nuts


* Reduce sugar by 10-15% if you prefer less sweet cookies


1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into medium bowl. By using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and brown sugar until combined and slightly fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time and then vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add in the shifted ingredients and mix just until blended. Using spatula, stir in cranberries, chocolate chips, and nuts.
4. For large cookies, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, as for smaller cookies, drop dough by level tablespoonfuls onto sheets. Bake cookies for 20 minutes of until golden brown. Remove and cool the cookies before storing.


Note: You can replace the cranberries with raisins, chocolate chips with white chocolate chips and as for the nuts it can be any kind of nuts to your liking.


Makes about 50 2-inch sized cookies