White Chocolate Cranberry Nut Cookies

I'm so excited to share this cookie recipe with you. During the Christmas season, a lot of people love to give (and receive) cookies as gifts. All the stores have various cookie tins and platters, with a wide variety of size, color, and shape. These are wonderful to fill with a variety of cookies for your neighbor, boss, teachers, or host/hostess.

This particular cookies screams "Holiday Season" to me. They have Cranberries, macadamia nuts, white chocolate chips and Brandy in them! Leave these out for Santa and you're sure to get some happy surprises in your stocking!! Now, I made these for Thanksgiving too, but you best believe I'll be making them again for Christmas, and possibly before then! They're a very chunky cookie, but the taste... oh, the taste is divine! I'm not sure where I got the original recipe for these. A quick search on the internet can find quite a few similar recipes, but I do know I changed a few things on that original recipe, so even if I found it I'm not sure I'd recognize it! I've made these for a few years now during the holiday season, and they're become part of my traditional holiday cookie menu. Hopefully they will be added to yours as well!



Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried cranberries
• orange juice (or Brandy)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon of your favorite Brandy liquor
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 cup macadamia nuts, slightly chopped

Directions:

First, measure out your dry cranberries into a bowl. Pour orange juice (or Brandy) over them until they are all just covered with the liquid. This wakes up the cranberries so they won't taste so dry when you bite into them, they'll be nice and plump and the orange juice balances out the tartness. You can use Brandy too, it will give them a little deeper flavor.

Preheat the oven for 375 degrees.
While the cranberries are soaking, add the butter or margarine with the sugars and start creaming them together until they become smooth.

Once the sugars are creamed, add in an egg and mix until smooth.
Then add in the brandy, then the vanilla and almond extracts.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Once mixed well, slowly stir them into the wet batter. Mix until batter is just barely wet.

Add in the white chocolate chips and fold them into the batter, then the macadamia nuts.
Use a cheesecloth to squeeze the excess juice out of the cranberries, then add them in as well.

Fold the berries in with the nuts and chips until just combined.

Place the batter in heaping spoonfuls onto your cookie sheet.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, they will still be just a bit doughy. Allow them to cool for a minute before transferring to a cooling rack. Once cooled, they are perfectly soft, with a thick texture. 

Serve and enjoy!