Tag Archives: holiday

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.

 

Thanksgiving & New Years Photo-Help!

Shutter-bugs, Photographers, Folks with Photo-collections – I need your help!

One of my nutcrackers — not these — will stand guard for Christmas

My latest cookie recipe book is on track to publish Spring 2022.  This book will feature tasty treats for winter holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.  Although time is getting snug, I think I’ll make it – but I need a few pictures …

The photos of my cookies are in good shape.  I have found that getting other people involved makes my books more fun.  What I lack are pictures for the chapter openings.

What I am looking for are simple photos with a single icon that is immediately recognizable with its holiday.  I have a small collection of nutcrackers, and I will be taking a picture of one to represent Christmas.  I still need photos that represent Thanksgiving and New Years*.
* Update – I may have some New Years fireworks photos to choose from already.

I will of course need colour photos with good composition, lighting, and resolution.  These pictures be used in multiple products – print books, e-books, etc – possibly in some marketing.  The contributors of these photos will be mentioned in the Acknowledgements section of the book and receive a complimentary copy of the book in gratitude.  Also, the copyright section of the book will acknowledge you as the owner of the image.
(Note that the primary product will be a print book with black & white photos in the interior, including these chapter openings.)

Have photos or ideas for these pictures?  Send me an e-mail.

Hope you can help — Happy Holidays to you & yours!

Don

Tourism, Books, and Souvenirs

Tourism
Tourism this way — bring your camera

Summer is coming, and one of the things that comes with summer is vacation in all its forms.  Whether you call it vacation, holiday, break, or retreat, it’s a great time to dust off your daily routine and exercise your sense of tourism.  Take off to that place you always wanted to go to, attend that annual festival you never miss, visit those friends and relations you’ve been meaning to spend some time with, or escape to that quiet out-of-the-way place you’ve heard about.  Take a book, and get a souvenir — or better yet, buy a book as a souvenir!

Moo!
Pulling over and blocking the road just to take pictures of cows …. that we don’t appreciate quite so much.  Seriously folks … it’s just a cow.

Here on Whidbey Island we know tourism — at a certain point in spring it turns on like a fire hose!  Suddenly we go from being a rural island to having people EVERYWHERE!  We appreciate that you want to come to this somewhat out-of-the-way rock of ours — we are off the beaten-path, so it’s flattering that you thought to come here and visit little-ol’-us.  With any luck, about now you might be asking yourself, “Well, if I visited Whidbey Island, what would I do — where would I go, what would I see???”

Deception Pass Bridge
The historic Deception Pass Bridge located at the north end of Whidbey Island

Whidbey Island has plenty to offer in the way of tourism — various farmers markets, Deception Pass and its historic bridge, car shows, historic Fort Casey State Park and its light house, the Island County Fair, the Oak Harbor Music Festival — and that’s just to name a few!  We also have historic towns that will carry you back to the Victorian Era — be sure to visit them — Langley and especially Coupeville.

Make Your Own Darn Good CookiesOf course, I’m biased — I’m going to tell you that if you are visiting Whidbey Island to go drop by one of the shops carrying my book.  Frankly though, that’s not just a plug for my book — I’m suggesting these shops because they’re in great locations that I believe you will enjoy, and these shops are are operated by delightful people.

Goose Grocery in Bayview

If you take the ferry from Mukilteo to get on the island at the south end in Clinton, just go a little ways up Highway 525 and you’ll see Goose Grocery on the right in Bayview.

Kingfisher Bookstore
Kingfisher Bookstore

A curvy-road-ways after Highway 525 turns into Highway 20, you’ll come to an intersection with a foot-bridge crosswalk, a gas station, and our hospital.  Turn north to visit historic Coupeville and find The Kingfisher Bookstore located overlooking Penn Cove on Front Street.  They have a local-authors table that includes my book.  Ask for Meg or Brad and tell them I sent you.
(Read my recent blog post about Kingfisher Bookstore.)

I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE …

Three Sisters Market, Whidbey Island
Yes, it’s formerly a firehouse

Last and certainly not least … As of Today I am once-again doing business with The 3 Sisters Farm Market, located at 779 N Holbrook Rd, Coupeville, WA 98239 — that’s on the north side of Penn Cove on the south side of Highway 20 — red building, you can’t miss it.  Visit the 3 Sisters Market — their farm is the biggest producer of food here on the island and everything in their market is local-Local-LOCAL!  Pick up a copy of my book, show it to the clerk at the register, and tell them that “Don The Author sent me!”  You’ll probably also want to tell them that they have a great shop … why … Because They Do, hands down.

3 Sisters LOGO