Cashberry Chip Cookies

I totally just made that name up. It was either that or Cranshew Chip Cookies... just doesn't sound as cute. :)

I love to bake! It's pretty common for me to spend my Sunday afternoons whipping up big batches of homemade muffins so that I can put them in the freezer for us to heat up for quick breakfasts throughout the next couple of weeks.  I'll definitely be sharing some our favorite muffin recipes soon. (Be expecting lots of recipes that use bananas... I ALWAYS have several bags of ripe bananas in the freezer. Don't you? haha)

But today is no day for muffins.

No, today is a cookie kind of day!

I've made a lot of different cookies since we got married, but this is probably my FAVE.  I made them for Christmas this past year because they seemed so festive and pretty with the cranberries, but seriously, these are so so so good, why only make them for holidays?? I cannot remember where I got the orginial recipe, but I do remember that it called for macadamia nuts.  While I love macadamia nuts (especially with white chocolate) I didn't have any at the time and thought cashews would be just as yummy.  Yummy they were!! This dough is very buttery and I love that it uses a full tablespoon of vanilla extract, as a lot of cookies only use a teaspoon or two. Feel free to use milk/semi-sweet chocolate in place of the white chocolate, or use a different kind of nut.  I keep several different kinds of nuts in the freezer all the time, so with most cookie recipes I just use whatever I want, but I love the cashews in this one.

Cashberry Chip Cookies

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups AP flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened (I use Smart Balance spread with no problem)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup white chocolate/vanilla baking chips
• 1 cup chopped cashews
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Use a handheld mixer (or if you're one of those lucky ducks that I am so envious of that have a Kitchenaid mixer) to cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.

Mix in the eggs and vanilla (and get really, really excited when you remember that your homemade vanilla will be ready in just three more months!).

Slowly add flour mixture just until combined (don't go crazy with your stirring here). 

mental note: If you're going to go anywhere with this blogging thing you've GOT to get some nicer mixing bowls... these old things from the college days just don't photograph so well.

Once that's all mixed up just add your cranberries, chocolate chips, and cashews.  Try to snack on equal amounts of all three as you're mixing so the ratio isn't off for the actual cookies.  This is also a good tip to keep in mind when you're bringing fast food home and eating french fries in the car.  Eat some from both yours AND your husband's so he won't be able to tell a difference.  See there? Cooking advice and marriage advice all rolled into one post. Genious.

Just a note about saving money on baking supplies... I get a lot of my stuff from Aldi's because they have great prices on baking supplies.  For this recipe, I used Aldi's white chocolate chips and dried cranberries. I buy Groupons for Nutty Guys to stock up on nuts because they have great quality products and a lot of organic stuff to choose from. 

Now just drop heaping teaspoons of the dough on an ungreased cookies sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes or so (just get them out when they're as soft as you like).  I really like letting my cookies cool using a wire cooling rack, so use one if you have one.

Enjoy! I got 40 cookies out of this dough.

Optional: I mixed up this dough and then put heaping teaspoons of the mix on cookie sheet lined with wax paper, then let it sit in the freezer until the dough was pretty firm (you can put the dough close together because you're not baking them- they won't spread out). Then I dropped the "dough balls" into a gallon-sized ziploc bags and threw it back in the freezer.  I will say that because this dough is really sticky with all that butter, they didn't firm up as much as other cookies I've made, so next time I will form the dough into a roll and put it in the freezer rather than individual cookies. Either way, now we have homemade cookie dough to pop in the oven any old time we want, and we can just bake as many as we need.  This is a great time-saver for those last-minute dinner guests or when your rockstar of a hubby has friends over to "jam".  Boys love cookies.

"flash freezing" cookie dough

Linking up with Balancing Beauty and Bedlam

Lady Behind the Curtain

Delicately Constructed Friday

Masterpiece Monday