Cranberry White Chocolate Cashew Cookies

Dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, and cashews marry to create the perfect holiday cookie!  Think neighbors gifts and party platters!

That’s what the holidays are for, am I right?  Enjoying yummy food (especially sweets) and not worrying about the consequences until the new year?  At least, that’s my take on it.  🙂

Makes about 2 dozen

1 cup salted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs

2 1/2 cups flour (+ 1 or 2 Tbsp…add later only if needed)

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

1 cup cashews, roughly chopped or halved

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs.  In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to wet mixture and mix until combined.  Stir in white chocolate chips, cranberries and cashews.  At this point, if the dough is a little too sticky, you can add up to 2 Tbsp. more flour.  My dough needed one more Tablespoon, but I’m high elevation, so odds are you won’t need any extra.  If the first batch comes out too flat, stir in a tablespoon at a time of flour until it’s just right.

Scoop cookie balls by the rounded tablespoon or with a 1 1/2″ cookie scoop and place six balls, evenly spaced (two across and three down), on a greased or nonstick baking mat-lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or just until they don’t look doughy.  Don’t overbake or they won’t be soft and chewy!

 This is probably the worst time of year to concern myself with avoiding desserts for the sake of fitting into my skinny jeans.  For this reason, I have a love/hate relationship with the holidays.  Neighbors and friends bring baskets loaded with homemade yummies and then we attend parties where loads of delicious food await our enjoyment.  It’s just the pits, isn’t it?  No, just kidding.  I love it!

I just don’t love what the scale says after it’s all over.