Cranberry, Walnut, and Orange Cookies

It's cranberry harvest time in southeastern Massachusetts, which means it's time for another cranberry cookie recipe.

It's hard to improve on my award-wining recipe for my Cranberry Crunch Cookies, so I did a variation on it instead. (Why reinvent the wheel when you've got a great start, right?)

So, to get started, I pulled out the original recipe and looked for ways to make some swaps. There were two that I settled on.

The original recipe called for 1 1/4 cups of dark brown sugar, but I had only 1 cup on hand and didn't really want to run back to the grocery store. Aha! Tweak #1 was set.

The original recipe called for toasted slivered almonds, which taste great with craisins, but exchanging walnuts for almonds was a no brainer. They play so well together! Tweak #2 was set.

The ground graham crackers, cinnamon, orange, craisins, and walnuts combine to make cookie versions of cranberry bread. Delicious!

Makes 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Cranberry, Walnut, and Orange Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1 cup dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla 1 1/2 teaspoons milk 1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest 1 1/2 teaspoons orange juice
Dry Ingredients	1 1/4 cups craisins 1 cup finely ground graham crackers 1 cup walnuts 1 cup oatmeal 3/4 cup flour 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping	Turbinado sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
4. In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
5. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
6. Roll each dough ball in turbinado or raw sugar.
7. Place sugared dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
8. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.