I had the idea for these cookies (or biscuits, I am still feeling conflicted as to which they should be called!), at work one day. A colleague of mine is American and her and another in our team where talking about Thanksgiving foods, as Thanksgiving was the following week. I heard them mention something about cranberry, and for some reason the idea for these biscuits just popped into my head. It probably wasn’t long after I had made my Raspberry and White Chocolate biscuits, on which this recipe is based. Maybe I just had biscuits on the brain.
While I didn’t get a chance to make my new cookie idea before Thanksgiving, I did ensure I tried them out on Boxing Day. I had kept a bar of Cadbury Caramilk for my next biscuit batch, as while this white chocolate is already caramelised, I thought it would be great used in biscuits where the white chocolate has extra time to further caramelise in the oven. I’m so glad I used it as the Caramilk tastes great in these cookies, and if I can find anymore I will buy some and keep it for my next batch.
These cookies are also great for this time of year, when we all hopefully have some time to bake, and maybe have some leftover dried fruit from making other Christmas-y things. I love using cranberries, but I’m sure other chopped dried fruit would be great too.
I hope you are having a lovely festive season, and have a great start to 2020. If you want to keep up with my news and more baking talk, my weekly newsletter will be restarting a couple of weeks into January - to sign up click here.
Cranberry and Caramilk Cookies
Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, softened or margarine (I use Proactiv Buttery)
200g brown sugar
100g white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
325g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
200g dried cranberries, roughly chopped
180g bar Caramilk (or other white chocolate), chopped
Method:
Beat the butter or margarine and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until combined. Add the vanilla extract, then the egg yolks mixing until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking soda, then add to the butter mixture and mix on a low speed until almost combined. Then add the cranberries and chopped Caramilk and mix until combined.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer, cover and refrigerate for at least 30-40 minutes (the dough can also be shaped into two logs, covered with plastic wrap or baking paper and frozen at this point too).
Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line 3-4 trays with baking paper. Once the dough has been in the fridge for 30-40 minutes, scoop out heaped tablespoons of the mixture and place on the prepared baking trays (leaving room for the biscuits to spread as they cook).
Bake for about 18 minutes (rotating trays halfway). The biscuits will be golden once done.
Allow to cool on their trays.
Store in an airtight container, they will keep for about 1 week.
Makes about 55 biscuits.
Reference: ‘The Violet Bakery Cookbook’ by Claire Ptak (Ten Speed Press, 2015), pp.140-1.
