Tag Archives: cookies

Double Chocolate Cranberry Cookies

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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!

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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.

 

Cookies … In … SSPPAAACCEE!!!

Pigs in Space
(Twitter @TheMuppets)

Do you remember The Muppets?  Do you remember “Pigs In Space!“?  If you do then you understand where the title of this post comes from.

Do you remember when NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace on a set of McCallum bagpipes from the International Space Station in 2015?  It was the first time Highland bagpipes were Played In SSSSPPPAAAACCCCEEEE!!!!  (Sorry, had to do that again… here’s a great article about it though!)
(Twitter @astro_kjell, @nasa, and @mccallumbagpipe)

Are you aware that the first cookies have been baked in space and were brought back on Earth?

© Christina Koch Twitter
Image © Christina Koch / Twitter @Astro_Christina

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (@Space_Station) baked dough brought from Earth just in time for Christmas 2019.  Five cookies were prepared over the course of 2 hours using an experimental Zero G oven — the first oven designed to work in the microgravity environment.  The astronauts’ mission was to figure out exactly how long it takes to properly bake a cookie in space.  The first four cookies baked at 300F (149C).  The first cookie was in for  25 minutes and came out underbaked.  The fifth cookie was baked at 325 F (165 C).
(Here’s an article about Space Cookies!)

Houston, we have a bake-off!

SpaceX Dragon
The SpaceX Dragon, on twitter @spacexdragon

Yes, we finally know what happens when you bake cookies in space!  The cookie dough and oven launched to the station in November on a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft and returned Jan. 7 on the SpaceX Dragon — possibly making these the most well traveled cookie dough, oven, and cookies in the history of mankind!
(@NGCNews)

SPACE …
The Cookie & Bagpipe Frontier!

BiscottiDon
Me as BiscottiDon @WIBakingCo

If you are not hearing the music to Star Trek, go back and read that again… (@StarTrek)

I would like to respectfully point out to both NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) and Elon Musk (@elonmusk) of SpaceX that they wasted money — and when it comes to space travel, that equals A LOT OF MONEY!  Trust me on this, I’m a small business owner, I cannot afford to waste money.

BagpiperDon
Me as BagpiperDon @BagpiperDon

As we all know I am both a skilled baker and published author on the subject and established Highland bagpiper who has published albums playing my instrument.

Okay — we can all see where this is going — TWO BIRDS, ONE STONE!!!

I’m not one to hold grudges*, therefore I wish to make the offer to both NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Elon Musk of SpaceX that they may compete — as they already are — to be the first entity to send a Highland bagpiping baker into space.  As an added skill I can even eat cookies in space.  My contact information is below.  I am willing to bring some of my own baking equipment and I already play a set of McCallum bagpipes (sponsorship?).  Let’s make “The First Biscotti In Space”!
(*Okay, that’s not 100% accurate, but this is how I’m spinning it.)

Respectfully ~ Don

BakerDon Contact & Press Kit (@WIBakingCo)

BagpiperDon Contact & Musician Resume (@BagpiperDon)
(Please note that I have performed in front of a US President — I am an ideal candidate!)

PS — I need employment.

TIME TO TAKE CARE OF SOMETHING

Something that came to my attention earlier today… FREE

Make Your Own Darn Good CookiesBefore the Fall 2018 launch of my book I redundantly and obnoxiously told everyone about a link on my website — a link where you could get FOUR FREE RECIPES that were going to be and are in my book. I found out today that not everyone caught that.

Yes — if you go to WhidbeyIslandBaking.com and look under “Products” for “Free Stuff” you can download these FOUR FREE RECIPES — better yet, OR JUST CLICK THIS LINK.

FOR FREE (or FOUR FREE)

You can download my recipes for…

Please try these recipes. Please enjoy these recipes. Please share these recipes. If you have questions about these recipes please ask me. If you don’t have questions then I did my job right in writing these recipes. If you like these, then please buy my book on Amazon. If the book is bigger than your budget, it’s also available as a save-a-tree e-book for about a quarter of the price.

ENJOY!
~ Don

PS — Thank you Rachel for bring this to my attention 🙂

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

My Book PUBLISHED & Shirts Available!

WHOO — WHAT A WEEKEND!!!

Make Your Own Darn Good Cookies by Donald P. ScobyNearly 3 years of work and a number of speed-bumps along the way, and my debut recipe book is finally PUBLISHED.  I finished the submission to Amazon on Friday and Saturday morning it had GONE LIVE!!!  I was part way through breakfast when I found out the news — then the web and my phone EXPLODED with activity.  Congrats on getting published, questions about my book, someone bought a copy, someone else wants 3 signed copies as Xmas gifts, keeping up with the comments, posting on Facebook and Twitter …. and about 4 or 6 hours later things calmed down and I turned to find the rest of my cold, uneaten breakfast sitting next to me.  Really, coffee shouldn’t be treated that way.

Later that day my new WIBC Logo/URL t-shirt when live on Etsy via Stitch 6 To 6.   Within the next hour the first shirts were ordered! book

Things stayed busy, and come Saturday evening I got some time to make my new Author Profile on Amazon and update my website. book

It took me a while, but I finally figured out where and how to order copies of my book.  I’m getting about 60 on this first go-around.  I have around 20 people to give copies to who contributed to the project and were amazingly supportive along the way — I am grateful to get reminders of how incredible people can be*.  There are also two people seeking around 5 copies each (WOW!) for Christmas gifts — 10 copies already sold!
* One among them is this guy — Tom Trimbath!  He also has an impressive collection of books he’s written available here.

Yeah, things started moving pretty quick — and finally, now … late Sunday evening, I’m getting to make a blog post about the highlights of what’s gone on.  It’s been an amazing ride so far — testing my stick-to-it and gumption, giving me challenges to use my resourcefulness to resolve, and numerous new things and lessons learned — I love this stuff!  And now…? book

Now I go from being a writer to being a published author. book
Now I get to work on converting the manuscript for my book into an e-book — and likely an audio-book too, narrated by yours-truly!
Now I remember that I need to get new business cards made.
Now the pivot of WIBC from being a company that makes food to being a company about good food and people connecting with people is complete. book

And now … now I go to bed and get some sleep!

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