Cranberry Hazelnut Holiday Cookies

Ingredients for Cookies and Icing

COOKIE DOUGH

• Butter unsalted 
• Cream Cheese
•  Sugar white
• Vanilla Extract
• Lemon zest
• Maple syrup (Escuminac Maple Syrup Great Harvest)
• All-purpose flour
• Kosher Salt
• Cinnamon
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Fresh cranberries
• Hazelnuts

ICING

• Powdered sugar
• Butter unsalted
• Maple syrup (Escuminac Maple Syrup Great Harvest)
• Lemon juice
• Fresh cranberries
• White shimmer sugar sprinkle

Harvesting Cranberries

I was looking at a TV commercial on cranberry harvesting, but I wanted to see more about how they harvest these little red gems, so you can visit the Ocean Spray website to see more. Ocean Spray Cranberry Harvest.

Another site I found which tells you how to plant, grow and harvest cranberry plants is Harvest to Table. This site is very informative for any questions you might have about cranberries.

Making Cranberry Cookies

As I always do, I weigh, measure, chop, zest, and juice my ingredients before I start. This is so I do not miss anything. As many cookies as I have baked, it always happens that if I skip this step, I will surely miss something.

Prepping the Ingredients

I start by chopping the cranberries in a food processor ( mine is a Breville). I purchased a 12 oz. bag of fresh whole cranberries and used about half a bag. This made enough for the 1 cup in the cookies and about ⅓ to ½ cup for the topping on the icing.

Adding the whole cranberries to the food processor, I pulse about four times. You want small pieces, but you don't want chopped cranberries the size of sand.

From the food processor, I add 1 cup for the cookies into a measuring cup and place them into a bowl. I put the remaining chopped cranberries into the measuring cup for the topping. This is when I search for large pieces and pull them out.

It's time to juice and zest a lemon. This kind of lemon or orange juicer works extremely well to get all the fruit juice. I put the lemon juice into the refrigerator until I need it for the icing.

Next, I weigh the white sugar for the cookies into a bowl and set that aside. Next, I weigh the flour and add the kosher salt, baking powder, and baking soda, using a whisk to blend the dry ingredients

I gather the remaining ingredients and set them by my mixer, and I am ready to start my cookies.

Mixing the Cranberry Cookie Dough

Once I am ready to start, it will not take long to pull this together. My unsalted butter and the cream cheese have been sitting out for about an hour. If yours is still really cold, it may take a long to blend them together.

Add the butter and cream cheese to a mixer bowl, start the mixer on the one setting, and gradually increase the speed to a medium. Since there is a little more cream cheese than butter, it is a little lumpy, but the sugar will even things out.

All the sugar for the cookies and turn the mixer to a medium speed. Mix for 3 minutes. Then, add the vanilla extract, lemon zest, and maple syrup. Mix until blended into the butter, cream cheese, and sugar mixture.

Now is the time to scrape the sides down and turn the mixer on a low speed. For me, "gradually add the flour mixture" means adding about ⅓ of the flour. Mix for 10 to 15 seconds. Then add another ⅓, mix for 10 to 15 seconds, and finally add the rest of the flour and mix for 10 to 15 seconds.

The hardest part of making cookies is not to over-mix the flour. If only a little bit of flour is still in the bottom of the mixer bowl under the cookie dough, take the bowl off the stand and finish incorporating the remaining flour into the dough with a nice spatula or your hand.

Finally, add the chopped cranberries and hazelnuts and mix for about 5 to 10 seconds.

Cover lightly and chill in the fridge. If you go and run errands and leave the cookie dough in the fridge for a couple of hours take it out of the refrigerator and let the dough warm up before you use a cookie scoop. Your cookie scooper will thank you!

Baking Your Cookies

Take the cookie dough from the fridge and turn the oven to 350°F (175°C or 180°C). I line 2 cookie sheet pans with parchment paper sheets.

Using a medium cookie scooper, scoop, and space out 12 cookie mounds onto the prepared sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes. Once out of the oven, move them to a cooling rack to finish. Make sure they have cooled before starting the icing.

Icing and Assembling

Weigh the powdered sugar into a bowl and set it aside. Grab the lemon juice that you squeezed out earlier from the refrigerator.

Cream the butter first to make sure it is smooth in texture, about 2 minutes on a medium mixer speed. Then, add the maple syrup and lemon juice. Then, add the powdered sugar right on top.

Turn the mixer to the lowest setting and mix until the powdered sugar has incorporated into the butter. I increase the mixer speed to a medium-high and let it mix for 3 minutes. I stop and scrape down the bowl and turn it back to a medium-high speed for another minute.

You want the icing to be on the stiff side. Take a butter knife and add icing to all the cookies.

I take a ¼ teaspoon measuring spoon, fill the end with the reserved chopped cranberries, and place it in the middle on top of the icing.

Take a pinch of the white shimmer sugar and sprinkle some on top of the cranberries.

To secure the cranberries and sugar sprinkles, lay a square of parchment paper on top of the cranberries. Gently press the cranberries down into the icing so they stay put.

Everyone will love the holiday colors, and they are full of cranberry flavor.

Enjoy!

FAQ's