Description

These cookies show off the best things about cranberry. With bright jeweled cranberry curd and chunks of both dried cranberries and candied orange peel and a sprinkle of pistachios, these cookies are a symphony of Holiday flavors and textures. There are few cookies to make in the season of Thanksgiving to Christmas that are prettier.

Ingredients

Scale

Cranberry Cookie Dough

1 sticks butter, at room temperature (113 g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (60 g)
1 Tablespoon vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chai spice blend or ground ginger
1/2 cup oil (preferably cold-pressed safflower or sunflower, see note) (118 mL)
1 large egg
1 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla paste
2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (276 g)
1 cup dried cranberries (114 g)
1/4 cup chopped candied orange peel (optional, but awesome)(25 g)

For baking

1/2 cup chopped pistachios (60 g)

For finishing

3/4 cup cranberry curd or raspberry jam

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Instructions

Beat the butter with the granulated sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and chai spice blend in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer just to soften it. Slowly drizzle in the oil with the mixer on until you have a smooth mixture of butter and oil.
Mix in the eggs and the vanilla paste. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then mix for a few more seconds until you have a very smooth batter.
Measure in the flour, cranberries and chopped candied orange peel.
With the mixer on, slowly mix everything just until the flour disappears.
Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Towards the end of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line sheet trays with parchment (you’ll need 3, but use as many as you have less than 3).
Scoop out large balls of dough (a little less than 2 oz).
Fill a small bowl with the chopped pistachios. Roll each ball just to round it off in your hands and then roll the top of the ball in the pistachios.
Place 8 balls on a sheet tray, pistachio side up.
Loading up the oven with 2 sheet trays at a time, bake the cookies for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes, rotate the sheet trays 180 degrees, and then swap the trays from top to bottom (or bottom to top as it were). Bake for 7 more minutes (13 minutes total).
Immediately take the hot cookies out of the oven and press the center of the cookie down with either a small cup or a tartlet tamper to make room to hold the cranberry curd. Allow the cookies to cool for about 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Fill the cooled cookies with a spoonful of cranberry curd.
Store the cookies in an airtight container in the fridge in a single layer or stacked with a piece of parchment between layers. You can also freeze these cookies without the cranberry curd or the dough itself for up to 3 months. Fill thawed cookies before serving.