Soft and Chewy Vanilla-Orange Cranberry Cookies
Soft and Chewy Vanilla-Orange Cranberry Cookies
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| Yield: | about 4 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- grated peel of 1 medium to large orange
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
- 2 cups dried cranberries; or a mixture of dried cranberries and toasted chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line them with parchment.
2) In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, orange peel, vanilla, baking powder, and salt.
3) Beat in the egg. The mixture may look slightly curdled; that's OK.
4) Add the flour and dried cranberries (or cranberries and nuts), stirring until well combined.
5) Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2" between them. A level teaspoon cookie scoop works very well here; dough balls will be about 1 1/4" in diameter. Using the flat bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, flatten the cookies slightly, to a scant 1/2" thick.
6) Bake the cookies for 6 to 7 minutes, until they're barely set, and a light golden brown around the edges. Don't over-bake; if you do, the cookies will be hard, not soft and chewy. Gently lift one of the cookies and look at the bottom; if you've used parchment, it shouldn't be brown. If you're baking on a dark cookie sheet without parchment, it should be light (not dark) brown.
7) Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool them right on the pan. If you need a pan to bake the remainder of the cookies, give the cookies about 5 minutes to set before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
Yield: about 4 dozen cookies.
Reviews
12/09/2011- I made these cookies a few days before Thanksgiving, and took them to Thanksgiving Dinner for the dessert table. They were a hit. The only change I made was to add about 1/2 cup of diced candied orange peel (since it's in the stores for the holidays) and decreased the amount of cranberries by that much. I thought the taste was great, and they do stay soft and chewy for a long time.
- 11/29/2011
- These cookies hit the spot for my orange/cranberry needs. It was hard not to eat more than 3 at a time! Added just a drop or two of fiori di sicilia and they had the most awesome scent to go along with the great flavor.
- 11/25/2011
- these cookies are refreshingly delightful. left out nuts but used 10 oz cranberries and a large orange zest!!!
- 11/23/2011
- Very good cookie! The name says it all: SOFT and CHEWY... I reduced the cranberries to 1 1/2 cups, no nuts, watched carefully during baking (7 minutes for my oven) and they came out beautifully. Another great KAF recipe!
- 11/19/2011
- Though the recipe is easy and the flavor combo is very good there just was not enough cookie in relation to the filling for my taste. I did 6 oz of cranberries and 6 oz of pecans and I was not happy with the results overall...plan to leave out the nuts next time and use just cranberries and less of them...10 oz or so. Also, I found the cooking temp to be too high - first batch really browned so I lowered the temp to 415 and the next batches were much better.
- 11/16/2011
- These are delicious cookies, but I think this is the first time in my years of baking KAF recipes that my results differed on a couple scores from the cookies described. I did make a couple of small changes. I used half White Whole Wheat flour, and maybe that accounts for the fact that my finished dough was crumbly, and I needed to add a little water: just enough to hold it together. I used a half teaspoon vanilla and a half Fiori di Sicilia, to augment the orange flavor. I opted for a cup each of dried cranberries and walnuts. Personally, if I were only adding cranberries, I'd probably still only use a cup--that quantity fills the dough quite thoroughly. I baked them according to directions, for 9 minutes on a parchment lined sheet. The bottoms did brown, but I wasn't surprised, at such a high heat, and it did not detract from the cookies, in any way. The tops did not brown. The cookies I made are small, but I only got 38 of them. I did not press the tops with sugar, since we limit our sugar intake. I just pressed them down a little with my fingers. They are very easy to make. I'll use this recipe again.
11/16/2011- I am not a fan of "soft" cookies. Cookies should be crispy and crunchy. I rated this recipe a 1 star based on the cookies being soft. I absolutely love orange and cranberry together in a cookie but it should be crunchy. If you are wanting a crunchy cookie....this is NOT it!
- 11/16/2011
- i added a glaze to the cookies of : 1 ½ cups confectioners? sugar 2 tablespoons zested orange peel 2-3 tablespoons orange juice mix till no lumps and brush on cooled cookies --- adds even more orange flavor
