'Tis the season for fresh cranberries and after making sauce, bread, cake and cobbler with these tart ruby berries, I was delighted to discover this vintage recipe for Fresh Cranberry Cookies. These would make a fine addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table, and a nice alternative to pie.
They are a snap to make, delicious and, most importantly, different. While Craisins (sweetened dried cranberries have appeared in numerous cookie recipe, this is the first I've seen using fresh berries.)
Gather your cranberries and, as the recipe instructs, coarsely chop them. I thought this was way too boring (and difficult) and was about to give up, but...
the DH, a former "deli man," decided to do it. However, I do think these cookies would be fine using the whole berry if you don't have an ambitious sort at home willing to step up to the
The recipe calls for two teaspoons of orange juice and, having none the house, I just juiced half an orange (and drank the extra!).
Make sure your butter is at room temperature, and beat it with the sugars. Add the milk, juice and egg and combine.
After you add the dry ingredients and combine well, add the cranberries and nuts to the batter. I used pecans, but walnuts would also be nice.
I used gloved hands to form the cookies into small balls, rather than dropping them by teaspoon onto the cookie sheet. They don't spread much so you can place them close to one another.
Bake for about 10 minutes and cool on racks.
Production notes: I followed the recipe exactly, using pecans for the nuts. The SIL, who adored these cookies, suggested gilding the
