I love the late fall. I find this time peaceful, fun and a good time to be productive, with all the excitement of the upcoming holidays and cozy nights at home.It’s also a perfect time to bake. This year I decided to try this recipe, which is a combination of the recipe from the back of the Cranapples dried cranberry package and this amazing recipe from the New York Times Cooking website. I made alot of changes to the recipe: veganizing it, reducing the sugar and oil, adding walnuts, and replacing chocolate chunks with chocolate chips.
It features cranberries, which I love. I grew up picking wild cranberries and their tart taste bring back fond memories for me. In this recipe, their tartness really contrasts well with the sweetness of the cookie and chocolate, giving the cookies a wonderful refreshing bite.
Easy to make and spectacular results
The recipe is pretty easy, and basic. I added poppy seeds as per the NYT Cooking recipe. This adds a degree of flavour, crunch, and uniqueness that makes these cookies a perfect combination of the familiar and comforting, and new and daring. They are really sublime.
One thing to note when making the cookie dough. It may be a little dry and crumbly for forming balls. You can fix this by adding water, 1/4 cup at a time to 1/2 cup until a soft but still firm dough is created.
Also, watch carefully the baking times. These cookies burn easily. Set your timer for 10 minutes and leave them for no more than 12 mintues. The cookies will be soft and fragile once removed from the oven. Don’t worry, they will harden when cooled. Move them with a spatula immediately to a baking rack to let cool.
Recipes used in this recipe
These are not a crisp or super sweet cookie, like the chocolate chip cookies you grew up with. They are a semi soft cookie and just sweet enough to satisfy any sweet tooth cravings you might have. They last for a few days refrigerated and also freeze well.
Baking tips for perfect cookies everytime
Cookies are basic baking but still have plenty of room for error. There is nothing as disheartening as a bad batch of your favorite cookies, so here are my tips for making the perfect cookie:
• Assemble your ingredients before hand. This makes baking so much easier. It is too easy to forget a crucial ingredient.
•Don’t overstir cookie dough. It becomes tough and overly chewy.
•Drop batter by rounded tablespoon onto the baking sheet. Don’t make the cookies too big as they grow in the oven and can become monster cookies. 1 1/2 tablesppon meansuring spoons make the perfect size cookie
•Let cool on a rack until fully cooled. Cookies will be soft when removed from the oven. Cooling them on a rack lets them harden up and keeps the bottoms from becoming soggy.
• Always set a timer. Timing is everything when baking cookies.
Chocolate Chip Cranberry Poppy Seed Cookies
Ingredients
- 130 g whole wheat flour 1 cup plus 1-1/2 tablespoons
- 85 g all-purpose flour 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 10 tablespoons vegan butter unsalted, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup fine or granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 large vegan egg 1 tablespoon chia or flax seed with 3 tablespoons water. Let sit for at least 15 minutes. Stir and use.
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or pieces
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/3 cup poppy seeds
- 2/3 cup moist dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 475 degrees F.
- Grease or line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Whisk together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder ,and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
- With an electric mixer beat the butter and both sugars together on medium speed for 3 minutes, until well blended scraping the bowl as you go.
- Add the vegan egg, and beat 2 minutes more.
- Add the dry ingredients all at once, Stir or beat at low speed until just mixed.
- Add the poppy seeds, cranberries and chocolate. Stir with a wooden spoon only until just mixed.
- Divide the cookie dough into 18 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place on the baking sheets. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours or preferably overnight.
- When chilled, rearrange the cookies on one the baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Keep the remaining baking sheet refrigerated.
- Bake the cookies for 10 minutes,
- Remove baking sheet from the oven. Tap lightly each cookie with a spatula or turner or glass to flatten.
- Let the cookies rest sit on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer them to a rack.
- Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Let all cookies cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
You must be logged in to post a comment.