Tag Archives: chocolate

Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

Insta Instagram follow
Instagram

Oh, you gotta try this one…

Twitter Twit Follow
Twitter

When just beginning in my bakery, I started with a small box of baking soda. On the back was a recipe for a combination I had never considered – Chocolate Cranberry Cookies. The bakery kept me busy, enough so that I had little time to experiment. Once I switched to writing recipe books, I have had more opportunities. Nearly nine years later, I finally made my version of this cookie – and it has proven to be a delightful combination!

Facebook FB Follow
Facebook

If you are reading this, you are also getting a sneak-peek!  These delicious Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies are one of the recipes that will be featured in my upcoming Thanksgiving / Christmas / New Years cookie recipe book.  This project has been in the works for a few years now, and it is my plan to publish it around September this year.  Keep an eye on this website along with my social media locations for updates.  If you would like to know when this book publishes, I would be happy to add you to my notification list — email me!  Don’t worry, I won’t send you newsletters — those things drive me bonkers.

INGREDIENTS

    • 12 Tablespoons – 180 ml Unsalted Butter, softened
    • 3/4 cups – 120 ml White Sugar
    • 3/4 cups – 120 ml Brown Sugar
    • 2 Large Eggs
    • 5 Tablespoons – 75 ml Strong Coffee or Espresso
    • 2 teaspoons – 10 ml Pure Vanilla Extract
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons – 7.5 ml Baking Powder
    • 1/3 cup – 80 ml Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
    • 2 cups – 480 ml All-Purpose Flour
    • 1 cup – 240 ml Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
    • 1 cup – 240 ml Dried Cranberries

mix ingredients chill drop cookies

MIXING

  1. cookies stacked allow coolIn a mixing bowl, cream butter and then combine the two sugars. It may be necessary to stop mixing and scrape the bottom of the bowl so that butter and sugar are mixed uniformly.
  2. Beat in eggs, coffee, vanilla extract, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
  3. While mixing, add one cup of flour at a time. Avoid over-mixing the flour; if necessary, stop mixing between making measurements and adding flour.
  4. Add the chocolate chips as the last of the flour becomes completely blended. Mix in the dried cranberries by hand.

BAKING

  1. Heat oven to 375° F/190° C/Gas Mark 5.
  2. Using a spoon, scoop small amounts of dough – 1 1/2 tablespoons or about the size of a ping pong ball – onto a cookie sheet. Space these apart, about 6-9 at a time.
  3. Place cookie sheet in the oven for 9-13 minutes. The cookies should be done when the edges are slightly browned.

TIPS THOUGHTS

Experiment with changing the extract – orange, almond, or rum should compliment the chocolate and cranberry flavours. Also, white chocolate chips might add a festive look if you want to use these as Christmas cookies.

PSST!!! You may notice that the ingredients above are similar to my Chocolate Ginger Cookie Squares in the Christmas cookie section. Yep – I just reused and modified my recipe and made it as a drop cookie. Which means, of course, that you can do either of these recipes as drop cookies or cookie squares!


A NEW Version of
Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies

Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies Update Cover artFor years I have wanted to get new cover-art for my debut book “Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies“.  I have also wanted to find a printer who could affordably give me interior pictures in colour.  I am excited to announce … IT’S HERE!!!

Available now through LuLu.com, I have re-released MYODGCookies — and it’s so new, I haven’t even received my proof copy yet!  If you go to their site you will find 2 listings — look closely — one is standard-bound paperback, the other is comb-bound.  Only the standard paperback will receive global distribution — which should start soon — so look for this new version through online book retailers and ask for it at your favourite local bookshop.

Let's Bake Cookie Squares and Biscotti!Do You Want To Try Before You Buy?…

Click the picture to get a copy of my FREE SAMPLE E-BOOK!

Also, check me out online at FacebookTwitter, and now Instagram for further updates on my upcoming books.

 

Celtic Cookie Experiment – UPDATE

LOVE baking experiments!

Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies COVERWhen I get an idea for a recipe or a way to tweak a baking recipe that calls for an experiment!  It’s actually how a number of my recipes came to be as you can find in Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies.  About half the time I try something new and it works out ‘right’ on the first try — which I consider lucky.  The other half of the time I can usually get what I’m aiming for after about 3-5 tries with recipe tweaks in between.

Lately I’ve had an idea for a new cookie that is so vivid in my mind I can see it — I can nearly taste it!  It’s a Celtic-themed cookie which I’ve talked a little about recently.  During the past few weeks I’ve been looking for the right time to experiment with it.  My delay has mostly been due to not having hot water has been out in my place, and given what I’ve thought to do …. yeah, I need to not be heating water to clean up afterwards.

microwaveTonight I gave it a go!  Well, not all of the experiment ….  what I tried was the frosting.  In this case, melted chocolate chips infused with coffee — and it FAILED!  I appreciate failures like this near as much as times of accomplishment.  What I tried didn’t work and now I know what not to do.  For this I am NOT using a microwave!

I have a new idea to try and I should be giving it a go …. this Saturday?  What will it be …. probably buttercream frosting … simple, easy, duh!

More updates to come 🙂

~ Don

One Way Not To Drink Coffee

I <3 Coffee … This is pretty well known.

I’ve done the math …

I had an amusing revelation about my coffee-of-late — frankly it was also kind of gross …. so of course I had to share about it here!  And it is cookie related by the way …..

I recently got on a crinkle kick. Growing up, my mom made chocolate crinkles as one of our Xmas cookies, and they were AMAZING! I’m not clear if crinkles are considered strictly-Xmas cookies, however going toward my next recipe book I’ve been developing an assortment of flavours — Lemon Crinkles, Orange Crinkles, Ginger Molasses Crinkles, modifications on the classic Chocolate Crinkle… Only one problem — the powdered sugar keeps cooking into my cookies and disappearing.

Chocolate Crinkles

I made mention of this problem on my personal Facebook profile and received a remark back — that if you mix a little cornstarch into your powdered sugar it won’t melt into the cookies. So the last time I experimented with with a crinkle recipe I gave this cornstarch trick a try — and had No Luck. In fact, it seemed like it melted in MORE.  At best I had spots of powered sugar on the cookies. The worse part was that I had made up a cereal bowl size mixture of powdered sugar and cornstarch and had a TON left over!

Image result for dalmatian
My cookies kinda looked like this fella and — aside from the blotchy sugar — about as happy!
Just so we’re clear, powered sugar is also know as confectioners sugar….
Not my actual bowl of confectioners sugar, but doesn’t the picture look nice with my blog post?

Lately, to use this bowl of corn-starched powered-sugar up I’ve been putting it in my coffee. Big deal, right — it’s sugar, and the cornstarch won’t hurt me — so what?!?

What happens when you put cornstarch into something hot — like hot water? It clumps, it thickens still but it thickens to itself — I didn’t even think of that! Yeah … if you don’t want dubious coffee-tasting sludge in your coffee …. this is not a way to use up the bowl of corn-starched powdered-sugar.

Image result for Duh!

Lesson learned & laughing at myself,
Don

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Squares – EXPERIMENT

What’s green and brown and all mixed up?

Some of my recipes I imagine and then create – with others I get the flavour idea from some other recipe, glean what I need from it in the way of flavouring and proportions, and then create my own cookie.  Early this month I came across a recipe for Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies – and they looked TASTY!  I instantly thought about this flavour being a cookie square…

Spread out in my forming pan and ready to go…

Around the middle of the month I got the opportunity to give it a go – take a look at the results below – it seems this is one of the times I nailed the recipe in the first go.  Here are two other bits of good news…

Yeah, I know, they’re a little toasted on top & don’t quite look minty green. I’ll see the inside results when I cut these apart after they’ve cooled over night.

…In simple terms, the way this recipe worked out, I learned more about my base Cookie Square recipe, enabling me to more easily make other flavours I imagine.

…I’ve already included this recipe in my soon-to-be-published baking book – not only do you get to see them here, but you will have the opportunity to make them yourself!

And how’s the book going?  There’s still a good chunk of work to do but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I’m working with an editor — Linda AKA CheckChick.com, who is FANTASTIC — and the writing is better than ever!  My *HOPE* is that the book will be published late-December or early-January.  Keep your eyes here and on the WIBC Facebook page…..

YEP – these cookies are GREEN! Trust me, I know – I live in a state where 1/2 of everything is green ….. not minty though.