Friday, October 17, 2014

Chocolate-cranberry Cookies with Self-rising Flour

It was picnic time for my kids' Chinese class and I signed up for dessert. I thought I would make some chocolate-cranberry cookies. This time though, I altered the recipe I posted long time ago by using the self-rising flour I had plenty on hand. Here is what I did.

3/4 cup (1&1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
2&3/4 cups King Arthur unbleached self-rising flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Yield: 4 dozen

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, orange juice, vanilla and salt.

Beat in the egg until combined. Add the flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips or chunks, cranberries and nuts. Drop by the tablespoon onto the foil-lined baking sheets. Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for about 12 minutes, until just beginning to brown around the edges and the tops. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Since I only have one oven to work with, I slid the entire foil lining with the baked cookies onto the cooling rack. Put a new foil lining onto the baking sheet for the second batch of cookies to bake. By the time the second batch was done, the first batch has cooled down enough for me to take off the foil to store. Then I put the emptied-out foil lining back onto the baking sheet for the third batch to bake in the oven after the second batch was moved to the cooling rack. This method worked out quite well for me by alternating the foil between batches.