Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, yesterday.
Remember these? I made them again yesterday. SO pretty!!
I'm going to briefly veer away from my Costa Rica recap and head back to the reason I originally started this blog: to talk about food! Baking in particular! You all know
I love tea. I. Love. Tea. I'm not talking about a good ole cup of Earl Grey, but
afternoon tea and all the frilly girlie goodness that goes along with it: silver, china, tablecloths, cloth napkins, finger sandwiches, lemon curd, scones, sugar cubes, clotted cream, petit fours... Frequently you'll also find cookies served at the end of afternoon tea, along with the petit fours (or in lieu of). I'm hot and cold about cookies in general. I know that sounds crazy since I'm a baker. But bakers don't have to love everything they bake... I mean, I don't even love eating
my own macarons! (I know - I know... there's something wrong with me).
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| Cranberry tea cookies with.... tea! |
However, these cranberry tea cookies are ridiculous. I can't stop eating them. In fact, I think I can't make them anymore because I will NOT STOP EATING them. To make matters worse, they're super easy to make. So combine easy-to-make with delicious and you're in a dangerous spot.
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| It's kinda crazy how good these cookies are - especially for how simple they are to make |
I'm not sure why I don't love cookies. I also don't love cake - but I guess that's another blog post... Cookies are boring to me, maybe. They're not always very pretty - even when they taste great. I think cookies are frequently done poorly too - especially homemade ones. OK, ok... I know - now I'm just getting snobby. But it seems people so often over-bake cookies that I just no longer trust I'm gonna get a tasty morsel when I'm offered one. Instead, by default - I
always turn them down. *sigh*
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| I ate all of these after I took this photo... seriously. |
OK, so less tooting of the horn and more discussion on the blog post topic, yes? The cranberry tea cookies. These are technically called Cranberry Noel Cookies and I believe the original recipe has coconut in it. Um, no thanks. With a name like cranberry NOEL cookies - these are really a Christmas cookie. But I love them. And I wanted some in April. So I'm calling them Cranberry Tea Cookies. Problem solved.
Of course you can eat these cookies with coffee instead of tea. Or a glass of milk. Or like I do, out of the cookie jar with no accompanying beverage.
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| The original recipe doesn't call for this - but I thought it was a nice touch |
I decided to make a little change to the original recipe which was given to us by a family friend... I roll the edges of the cookies in sugar before baking. I originally did this because I thought I'd been a bit too generous with my cranberries and nuts in one batch and made the cookies not-sweet-enough. So I rolled them in granulated sugar. I loved how they turned out though; the sugar made them sparkle and the little crunch it added was very lovely. I continue to roll them in sugar whether I'm heavy handed with the accouterments, or not!
Want the recipe? I know you do...
Cranberry Noel Tea Cookies
Makes 35-40 cookies
2 sticks salted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 T milk or cream
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 c chopped pecans
3/4 c chopped dried cranberries
1/4 c extra sugar
Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add milk and vanilla - mix. Add flour and salt - mix well. Add cranberries and pecans.
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| Add cranberries and pecans... |
Roll into 2 logs about 8 x 1 1/2". Wrap and chill for 2 hours in the fridge. I've also put them in the freezer for 30-60 minutes and this works the same way. You just want it to be firm enough to cut without misshaping the round cookie.
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Roll into logs
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| Wrap and chill for 2 hours |
Slice cookies about 1/4" thick. Roll edges of cookie in sugar (if you want. But I highly recommend!)
Place on lightly greased cookie sheets, or Silpats. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes. DON'T OVER-BAKE (well, unless you like hard hockey puck type cookies...)
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| Place on cookie sheet |
Eat. Eat more. Eat a few more. Give some to friends - wait, just kidding.
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| Eat... |
Posts
a delicious lisa endorsement that's easy enough for even *ME* to make? dangerous... very dangerous... ;)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThese look lovely, Lisa!! I love cookies like this :) Would you mind if I made up a batch and put them on my foodie blog with a link back to your site? Thx, Linda @ Lemon Drop
ReplyDeletehttp://lemondropsfoodie.blogspot.com/
Linda: sure thing! What is on my blog is out there for everyone to share! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa !!
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm making these for sure!! Beautiful photos -
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa, Thanks for a cookie recipe without eggs - my son is allergic and I've had a hard time finding non-egg baked goods. Anyway, I made these today and they were delicious. But out of 1 log, I only got 5 round-shaped cookies. The others crumbled (in half or more) when I cut them. :( What did I do wrong?
ReplyDeleteHi Jen,
ReplyDeleteHhhmmmm..... Here are a few things I can think of:
1) make sure your butter is very soft when you're first mixing the cookies - so that the batter is very well mixed.
2) when you form it into a log - squeeze it very tight. Make sure the log is very firm - really pack it together like you're molding clay. This is *probably* where you went wrong?
3) be sure the dough is almost hard when you start cutting it. The harder/colder it is, the easier it will be to cut straight through without crushing/mis-shaping or crumbling the cookies as you cut.
4) if they crumble as you cut them - could you mush them back together in a round shape?
I really can't think of anything else since this has never happened to me. But maybe try incorporating these and see how it goes?
Here is another egg-less cookie recipe. It's almost the exact same cookie except with the small differences, they do taste quite different:
http://www.lisaisbossy.com/2008/11/everyone-wants-little-russian-in-them.html
Thanks Lisa. I think the problem was #2 with a little of #1. The butter was not cold, but was not very soft either. On #4, I could not push them back together to re-form a circle, but the "scraps" were delicious anyway! I used walnuts and will try them with almonds next time. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteI thought these were delicious! Kind of like a cranberry pecan shortbread. Perfect for tea!
ReplyDeleteThese sound and look delicious. I live in England but am going to try this using Craisins.
ReplyDelete1. Could you please tell me how many oz. 2 sticks of butter is?
2. Flour - plain or self-rising?
Thank you!
Denise
They ARE delicious!
ReplyDeleteA "stick" of butter is 4 oz. (so 8 oz. total in this recipe) and just all purpose flour - not self rising.
Hi Lisa, I had tried this cookies....really delicious!
ReplyDeletehowever, i have few problems just wonder you know where i did wrong.
i have replaced cranberries with blackcurrant and i d't put in pecans. i cannot make up the log as the dough is too soft, thus i add in extra 50gm flour and finally the log is able to rolled up.
after the cookies baked, i let it cool down on the baking tray, while i am try to move out the cookies, the blackcurrant is stick on the parchment paper.
My trader joes has orange infused cranberrys, wow are they good in this cookie recipe! Thanx so much for sharing
ReplyDelete