I have made this recipe for 3 years now and everyone loves them. I've always used vanilla extract instead of the brandy and have used 3/4 a cup of cranberries when I didn't have a cup and they still were delicious and looked nice. I look forward to making them again for this years office cookie exchange.
I bought some fresh cranberries on sale before thanksgiving. I didn't want to make cranberry sauce (boring) and I found this recipe. It calls for dried cranberries, I used the fresh, I rinsed them and put them in a glass dish on 250 degrees for 5-10 mins to soften them up. Then I folded them carefully into the dough right at the end!! I took them for thankgsgiving, they were gone before anyone even sat down to dinner. The cranberries popped open in your mouth. Absolutely the best cookie I've ever made or eaten!!!
One of my favorite cookies! Only a few alterations and comments: You must use brandy or other alternative (Capt Morgan would be good too, as one reviewer suggested). It makes it special. I always double to recipe and decrease the amount of sugar to 3/4 cup of both white and brown sugars. I also use margerine (I Can't Believe its Not Butter)and add a box of Cheesecake flavored pudding. Cook as Diane suggested, just until barely brown and leave on the cookie tray (I use stoneware) for 3-5 minutes. They will be scrumptious! I cannot tell you if they are dry the next day, as some suggest b/c ours never last that long! BTW, the dough freezes beautifully. I just drop it onto a cookie sheet with my "scoop" and freeze it. When baking the frozen ones, put them on the cookie sheet when you preheat the oven and they will be ready to bake when the oven is ready.
Wonderful Christmas cookies with just a few modifications. Since I hate it when cookies spread too thin (I feeled like I've failed somehow), I used 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening - still delicious! Used just a little less sugar - 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar and added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans and did not grease the cookie sheets which keeps them from spreading too much. I ended up with beautifully rounded, chunky cookies chock-full of crunchy, chewy, creamy bits - yum. 8 minutes baking and no more.
I formatted this recipe for cookies in a jar for Christmas. They looked so pretty being that 2 of the ingred. were red and white. I layered the jar as follows: 1/2 c. brown sugar (well packed & pressed down into the jar), 1/2 c. sugar, 1-1/2 c. flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 3/4 c. white choc. chips, & 1 c. dried cranberries. As long as you are consistant using the exact ingred. and slightly pounding the bottom of the jar on the counter, all the ingred. fit perfect into a quart size jar. Also, I found that using a hand made funnel out of paper helped a lot. I added a pretty Christmas fabric to the top and made a little recipe card that I tied to the outside of the jar: 1. Empty cookie mix into large mixing bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix. 2.Add: ½ cup butter, very soft; 1 egg, slightly beaten; 1 Tbsp. brandy.
3. Mix until completely blended. You will need to finish mixing with your hands. 4. Shape into walnut sized balls. Place 2” apart on sprayed baking sheet. 5. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 mins. in preheated oven. Remove to racks to cool. Makes 2 dozen.
I enjoyed putting these together and giving them as gifts. I received such wonderful responses from the receivers and the ones that have made the cookies.
These cookies taste great!! Not too sweet, but not bland at all. The white chocolate gave it sweetness but not too much. I did make the following changes though: (1)Added 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white (2)I rolled the dough into balls and flattened them a bit before baking, if you don't flatten them they will keep their shape and turn cake-like and (3)I baked them at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. These cookies came out perfect and they were SO easy to make!
These were delicious!!!! Loved at both work and home. I had a hard time keeping away from them. The recipe doesn't make too many so I'd advise at least doubling or tripling the recipe. Also I found that they held together better by pressing into balls before putting them on the cookie sheet. Simply doing a dropped spoonful made them too loose after baking.
These are a yummy treat which we all loved. I used vanilla instead of brandy and added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. I also doubled the recipe as others had suggested and I'm very glad I did. These will have to be hidden if I want to keep them until Christmas!
What can I say? I've now found a family tradition that I will make for Thanksgiving and Christmas forever! This recipe is delicious. Like others, I used vanilla extract instead of the brandy and the cookies are heavenly. My whole family and my whole extended family couldn't get enough of these cookies. I was so proud of them, I made up cookie gifts for my neighbors :) I truly believe this cookie is one fo the best cookies I ever tasted. I used dried sweetened cranberries. I couldn't find any dried cranberries that weren't sweetned (don't really know for sure if there is such a thing anyway), but I will make sure I get the same kind of cranberries next time as well. I don't want to change a thing.
Thank you, for this recipe. I can't give enough praises for it..
