Cookie of the Month

Soft & Chewy Orange Cranberry Cookies

·       1 cup butter

·       1 1/2 cups sugar

·       grated peel of 2 oranges

·       2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·       1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·       1 teaspoon salt

·       2 large eggs

·       3 cups all-purpose flour

·       1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

·       1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

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. If the mixture may look slightly curdled; that's OK.

4) Add the flour and dried cranberries and nuts, stirring until well combined.

5) Drop the dough onto the baking sheets. This dough hardly changes size or shape during the baking process so place onto the cookie sheet in large, lumpy cookie shapes, about 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. (THIS IS IMPORTANT! Don't over-bake; if you do, the cookies will be hard, not soft and chewy.) The cookies may appear to not be quite done, but don't bake longer than 7 minutes; they'll finish baking as they cool.

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 2 dozen cookies.