I have said so many times before, I’m a cake person, not a cookie lday, and certainly not a pie woman. Or, at least I thought so… I’m sure there is a deep meaning to all of this. I never really put much thought into this matter but it feels like there’s a profound philosophical significance behind it. I’m quite sure of it. Someday, when I have the time, I will definitely sit down and analyze this to pieces. But no matter why or what, I can tell you this for sure – every home needs a cookie jar! I’m positive about that. Do you have a cookie jar at home? If you don’t have a cookie jar, you must get one. Get to it ASAP (as soon as possible). It’s truly extremely important. And there must be a cookie in there too, of course. At least one. But more than one is even better, right?
To get you started, here’s a basic sugar cookie dough recipe I found in Real Simple magazine that you can easily turn into 10 different kinds of cookies in a blink of an eye.
The variation I made is the cherry-almond jumbles which I changed according to what was in my pantry. It’s a no fuss recipe and if using a cookie scoop your job will be even easier. You know what? I’ll give one cookie scoop away. Yes! Let’s start the new year with gift giving. What do you think about that? Because… I really really want you to bake cookies.
The giveaway:
I will give a medium size Oxo cookie scoop (such asthe one in the photo above), my favorite, to one lucky reader who will write a comment. What do you have to do?
Leave a comment and tell me about your favorite cake, cookie, or pie and why do you love it so much.
I really want to hear *your* voice, so a minimum of 40 comments (from all readers alltogether, on any post within the time frame) is needed for the giveaway to take place.
Time frame: starting today and ending on Sunday, January 10th, 2010. Shipping is limited to U.S. and Canada.
Good luck!
Dried cranberries and almond jumbles
Adapted from Real Simple magazine
Makes 28 cookies using a 1 1/2 – inch cookie scoop
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher/sea salt
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup dried cranberries or cherries
1 cup sliced almond, lightly toasted* and roughly chopped
Preheat the oven to 350° F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In a mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat.
With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add the dried fruit and almonds and mix well.
Make cookies by either dropping a walnut size mounds of dough using a tablespoon/s or a 1.5-inch cookie scoop (as shown in the picture above).
Bake until just beginning to brown, 20-24 minutes.
Notes:
To toast the almonds, place them on a baking sheet in a 350 F oven and toast for about 8 minutes, stirring a few times, until they begin to brown and smell good.
The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped, for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Tags : almond, cookie, Dessert, Dried cranberries, holiday, jumbles, recipe
Categories : Cookies, Dessert, Giveaway, Recipes
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29 Comments
The Cookbook Apprentice
December 28th, 2009 at 00:13
These cookies look wonderful! I love the idea of changing up a basic recipe. So hard to choose my favorite pie, cookie or cake because I have rarely met one I didn’t like! But…if I had to pick just one…my go to favorite, comfort sweet treat would be chocolate fudge layer cake. OK, now I’m craving a big hunk of it and it’s 11:12 PM.
Paula Thomas
December 28th, 2009 at 10:45
Hey those kind of look like the cranberry scones I made last week. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gapey/4211946004/
kristi @ sproutsinthekitchen
December 28th, 2009 at 18:33
Those look lovely…….
My favorite (right now) are the cardamom-walnut cookies rolled in powdered sugar. I hope I win the giveaway because it will finally give us an excuse to meet! And besides, I AM a cookie person. Though the jar is still missing from my kitchen!
.-= kristi @ sproutsinthekitchen´s last blog ..four =-.
Maria Freeman
December 28th, 2009 at 20:11
I am a cake person too, though those cherry almond cookies look quite tempting! The very best cake I ever made is a Tropical Carrot Cake with coconut cream, pineapple, macadamia nuts, shredded coconut, walnuts – mmmmm….and coconut cream cheese frosting. So delicious. I would be happy to share the recipe if you’d like!
Starr
December 28th, 2009 at 20:23
I am a cookie omnivore. Chocolate-y, fruity, nutty, soft, crispy, chewy. I love it all. My favorite cookies are cream cheese and pecan pinwheels. Don’t ask me for the recipe because I cannot find it! The recipe was in the Baltimore Sun in 2000 around the holidays, and I made them several times during that season. I think they might be responsible for me passing all my classes the fall semester since I got rave reviews from my professors. They certainly helped me write and study!
Beverly
December 28th, 2009 at 21:00
I am not much of a baker, mainly for health reasons (diabetes runs strongly in the family.) However, I have always made cakes for birthdays and a small selection of cookies during the holidays. My family’s favorites are chocolate chip, peanut butter with Hershey’s Kisses on top, but most of all, Russian Tea Cakes. The recipe appears in a cook book that I acquired when I was in junior high school (over 50 years ago!) If I can only make one, that is the one that is requested by all. The recipe is probably the most time consuming of the three, but when you pop that small powdered sugar coated ball full of diced pecans into your mouth, it is worth all the effort. Heavenly!
jacquie
December 28th, 2009 at 22:21
i’m certainly a cookie person – not a pie or cake person. “favorite” not sure i have one – though i do tend toward the soft/chewy version rather than crispy. sometimes it’s the old standbye chocolate chips, sometime oatmeal cranberry (or apricot), sometimes more along the sugar cookie/snickerdoodle route. and then there are the sentimental ones that come for holidays – beth’s cookies, apricot snowballs, pecan balls …. the list just goes on.
Cenwen
December 29th, 2009 at 03:00
Nurit Hello!
Wow! It is the only word which I think seeing your cookies! They are absolutely fabulous!
I do at least once a week, and then you give me lots of new ideas! I saved your blog post in my favorites! A big thank you to you:)
Good day:)
Kisses:)
.-= Cenwen´s last blog .."Puissiez-vous vivre des temps intéressants." =-.
Vicki
December 29th, 2009 at 05:39
My favorite is CHEESECAKE.IT can be any variety, NY,Tiramisu,in a Danish, or even salty in a Burekas.A very close runner up is anything w/puppyseeds ( prefferably in yeast dough)yum!
Tamar
December 29th, 2009 at 09:37
I’m actually more of a cobbler person. I found a berry cobbler recipe in the Runner’s World magazine about 5 years ago and I still make it.
Kristen
December 29th, 2009 at 11:10
I do love cookies and cakes and the innards of pies (crusts not so much) and I just got finished eating the Christmas stash so am cookied out right at the moment. Oddly, if I make them, I am less likely to eat them. In any case, my favorites of long-standing are Buckeyes, which are really more a candy than a cookie–peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate.
.-= Kristen´s last blog ..Christmas travelogue =-.
sm
December 29th, 2009 at 11:19
hmm… i think my current favorite sweets are a toss-up between freshly baked meringues and sugar cookies. i love both because you really can play with the flavors added to them. my goal for this winter is to see is a tasty tabsco sugar cookie is possible. (i know! it sounds strange, but i think it could be fun! or, at least interesting to try!)
Julie
December 29th, 2009 at 16:12
I think my favorite cookie is the Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip cookie… it’s so big, warm and gooey. The chocolate is not too blah, not too sweet. I’d consider it as the quintessential “way too much” chocolate chip cookie. Overall amazing!
.-= Julie´s last blog ..Garlic Roast Chicken =-.
Laura
December 29th, 2009 at 16:21
My favorite cookie is one that I just discovered and am still perfecting. They’re pumpkin molasses whoopie pies. It’s the recipe from here http://eastofmina.wordpress.com/2007/11/03/gross-pumpkin-molasses-cookies/ plus extra pumpkin and flour and then made into sandwiches with cream cheese frosting
Whitney
December 30th, 2009 at 06:37
I am a cake person. There is something to mixing batter together a watching it rise in a pan that makes me smile. Cookies seem like so much work. Maybe if I had a cookie scoop I would enjoy making cookies more.
.-= Whitney´s last blog ..Yay! For A First Post! =-.
carmen
December 30th, 2009 at 06:46
my favorite cake is amanda hesser’s almond cake from her “cooking with mr. latte” i pretty much love all almond-flavored items, but this cake is really heavenly!
.-= carmen´s last blog ..Tuesdays with Dorie – Low and Lush Chocolate Cheesecake =-.
Alexandra
December 30th, 2009 at 09:33
Those look so cute. My favorite cookie is my mom’s famous crescent cookies… she makes them like no other. They LOOK like your typical powdered mexican wedding cookies in crescent form but they don’t taste like it — they really are delicious… and it’s a tradition for her to make it every year. I can’t wait to pass that tradition on to my kids
.-= Alexandra´s last blog ..Gingersnaps =-.
diva
December 30th, 2009 at 09:45
these cookies are beautiful. i shd definitely start using an ice cream scoop when making cookies. gives it such a lovely neat shape!
.-= diva´s last blog ..The Ghost of Me Feasted; Hello 2010 =-.
Nurit - 1 family. friendly. food.
December 30th, 2009 at 18:02
Carmen, I have that book. But didn’t finish reading it
I did post about a walnut cake from that book though… is it this one? http://www.familyfriendlyfood.com/2009/02/little-not-red-riding-hood-and-a-cake/
I love this cake too!
grace
December 31st, 2009 at 04:17
favorite cookie, eh? well, those who know me know how much i adore cinnamon and everything it touches, but interestingly, the snickerdoodle is not my favorite cookie. no, that honor belongs to the oatmeal scotchie. there’s just something magical and irresistible about that chewy, oaten cookie and those sweet, buttery morsels. good heavens, i think i need to bake a batch right now!
.-= grace´s last blog ..of sconces and scones =-.
Tara
January 1st, 2010 at 17:48
Sometimes I crave a dense, cakey cookie…these look awesome. I might even throw in a pinch of cream of tartar, because all my favorite sugar cookie recipes have that – I like the extra kick it gives, and I think it would go well with that fruit.
Mmm, maybe some mini chocolate chips, too…the possibilities are endless!
My favorite cookie recipe is, hands down, and probably disappointly so, the Tollhouse choc chip cookie recipe on the back of every bag. The only change I make to it is using dark brown sugar instead of light (or sometimes a mixture of the two) because, well, I love dark brown sugar. But I have never come across a better choc chip cookie than what theirs churns out. Not the NYT cookie, not the infamous $250 recipe, not even Alton Brown’s variations. It’s Tollhouse all the way.
Helen
January 1st, 2010 at 18:54
That may actually make my cookies look the same! Imagine.
My favorite cookie recipe are homemade oreos. It’s better than the real thing.
Yael
January 2nd, 2010 at 06:08
Choosing a favorite cookie, cake or pie is almost an impossible task for me. I do have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe of Jacques Torres. It has a touch of fleur de sel in it and on top and I just love that combination of the salt with the sweet.
Nate
January 5th, 2010 at 08:53
It’s hard to tell what is my favorite cookie. I think our Chinese Almond Cookies recipe is one that I have a hard time resisting.
.-= Nate´s last blog ..Chinese Almond Cookie Recipe =-.
mary
January 6th, 2010 at 00:34
I love to bake (and eat!) Chocolate Chip Cookies! Thanks!
alissa
January 6th, 2010 at 14:21
Those cookies look delish! My favorite cookie to make is a polish cookie called chrusciki. My Mom and I make them together every Christmas. Happy New Year! Love your blog!
Marta
January 7th, 2010 at 06:47
About cookies – one of my favorites is Viennese Crescent -
butter, sugar, ground walnuts with powdered vanilla sugar on top. Originally from The New York Times cookbook,
a delicate and rich cookie that is just delicious!
Nurit - 1 family. friendly. food.
January 10th, 2010 at 18:31
Thank you all for the cookies and cakes. I never heard about some of the names you have mentioned.
The winner will be announed soon!
shanghai world expo
February 5th, 2010 at 01:49
In China, few people do their own cookies at hme.