On one of my visits to Santa Cruz, California, Pauline and I were strolling down Pacific Avenue when the wonderful aroma of baking cookies lured me into the Pacific Cookie Company. The awesome smell of the cookies was only surpassed by the selection of cookies and other treats. It was an excrutiating choice - I could not leave empty handed and I had to try more than one. I chose 2 oatmeal raisin cookies and 2 dark chocolate cranberry cookies. Oh, man were they good!! The dark chocolate cranberry cookie was probably the best cookie I have ever tasted. The combination of the tasty semi-sweet chocolately flavor of the dark chocolate mixing with the tartness of the cranberries and contrasting with all the butter and sugar was unbelievable.
About a month later we were invited to a potluck lunch at my sister-in-law's house in Irvine and I decided it would be a good opportunity to attempt to replicate the cookies. I got the basic recipe from a package of Nestle Tollhouse cookies but modified it to my taste by using Ghirardelli bittersweet chips (larger than usual chips) and, of course, adding the cranberries. Although the recipe says it yields 5 dozen cookies, my batch yielded about 16 palm-sized, delicious cookies. I will try this recipe again next week (pre-Thanksgiving office meeting) and will use Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips. That should taste even better!
DARK CHOCOLATE-CRANBERRY COOKIES2 1/4 cups all-purpouse flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packaged brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. package) bittersweet or dark chocolate chips
6 oz. dried cranberries
PREHEAT oven to 375°F
COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop (usually rounded tablespoon or whatever size you like) onto ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool.
If you try this recipe give me your feedback. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Enjoy!
