Cranberry Chocolate Pecan Cookies

I love a nicely balanced cookie. This is a nicely balanced cookie.

A little chocolatey sweet with a bite of cranberry and some mellowness from the pecans.

What more could a girl want?

These are NOT low fat. I did not make some of my usual healthy substitutions in these and they are NOT a health food item... and I love them.

Yields: 4-6 dozen depending upon how large you make them!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips of your choice (I like to chop up a few dark chocolate bars - big chunks!)

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup pecans, chopped (not too finely - I like chunks!)

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the butter and sugars until well mixed. Add in the vanilla and then one egg at a time, beating until well mixed.

In another bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda until well blended.

Add the dry mixture to the wet one cup at a time, mixing in between until blended.

Once mixed, pop into the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes to harden up a little bit.

A few minutes before you pull the dough out, preheat oven to 375°F.

I like to use silpats or parchment on my cookie sheets. They make fast work of the clean-up!

Drop the dough by teaspoon full onto either silpats, parchment or UNGREASED cookie sheets. Leave room between the cookies as this dough spreads a lot!

Bake for 8 minutes, checking at 6 minutes until you know how

long your oven takes. I have what I'd call a slow oven in the new house and it takes me 8-9 minutes. In my oven at my former apartment these baked in 6-7 minutes.

Take them out when they begin to brown and the top looks a little crackley.

You'll know what I mean!

Transfer to the wire rack and let cool enough so that you don't burn your tongue on the hot chocolate, but not so long that you don't get at least ONE

(who am I kidding with one?) when the chocolate is still runny and gooey!

All that's left is to enjoy the cookies...and the clean up!

National Cookie Week Art:

Art by Gerard Conte ©2011

www.gerardconte.com

Banana Cranberry Walnut Bread

I ran across this recipe over at Joy The Baker after finding I had more fresh cranberries remaining than I'd recalled.

I altered it a bit as follows.

It is so fragrant! The house full of workmen have enjoyed it as much as we have! Great with morning coffee or afternoon tea.

Printable version of Recipe

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon Jack Daniel's
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg - fresh ground is best
Pinch of ground cloves

1 cup toasted chopped walnuts (leave them chunky)
1 cup fresh cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

You can mix this recipe by hand, but I poured it all into my mixer. Mix melted and cooled butter into the mashed bananas. Add in the sugar, egg, vanilla and Jack Daniel's, then the spices. Take the moment to freshly grate/grind the spices. It will make your bread come alive!

Combine baking soda and salt and add to mixture. Add the flour, mix. Remove bowl from mixer if you're using one. By hand, add the toasted walnuts and cranberries, mixing until just incorporated.

Butter & flour a 8" x 4" inch loaf pan.

Tip: Try to not to put the butter/flour too far up the sides. Your loaf will rise better without the grease up on the sides. On the loaf pictures above I forgot and did the whole loaf pan. It didn't rise as much as I'd hoped. I often us PAM Baking, shielding the sides with a butter wrapper or card. I do put it into the corners and up the bottom 1/2" +/-.

Pour the mixture into the pan and drop the pan onto the counter once or twice to break any large bubbles.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, checking after an hour with a toothpick or skewer. Cool on a wire rack.

Tips:

Toasting Nuts:
Break the nuts into a few pieces by hand or with a large knife. Put the nuts into a small frying pan over medium high heat and cook until toasted. Be sure to stir the nuts as you cook. BEWARE: Nuts will go from toasted to burned quite quickly.

Very Ripe Bananas:
I keep a reclosable freezer bag in the freezer with bananas that have gotten overly ripe. When the skins are nearly black, they get added to the bag. No waste!

Printable version of Recipe