What’s better than a thick chewy bakery style cookie? NOTHING!! Cranberry Almond Bakery Cookies …..oh yeah!!!
I have mentioned before that I used to manage a bakery. Said bakery was in a grocery store, so volume was king. It would have been impossible to make all of the choices from scratch. So, we did what I fondly called fake and bake.
If you can decorate it or add a little something to the flavor it’s a win! Cookies for us came in the form of frozen pucks. All you had to do was put them on a cookie sheet and bake them. They were surprisingly good.
But alas, they were not homemade 🙁 These days I do not need to produce in bulk, so creativity and made from scratch are the order of the day.
I love cookies…….sigh! I love cranberries…..sigh! I love almonds……sigh! All three together…….Woot!!
I wanted to make an extra special, bakery style cookie. Big, chewy, and full of flavor.
Butter, almond butter, and sugar creamed together. I used almond butter instead of all butter, I was hoping for that extra almond taste. It worked. Plus, I think the almond butter gave the cookie a better texture, but maybe it was just me.
Anyway, if I was using almond butter I needed almonds. I used sliced, but you can use slivered and get the same results.
Nothing to me is worse than biting into a cookie thinking that the little flecks of dark are chocolate chips, only to find out that they are raisins.
If you like raisins no problem, but of all the food in the world raisins are the one thing I can say I truly don’t like. But, I will eat dried cranberries until the cows come home. And they are really pretty.
When making cookies I always use an ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies. You can be sure the cookies are all uniform in size. That way no fighting over who gets the biggest cookie.
I have also discovered that chilling the dough is really the best for perfect cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. So, chill that dough even if its only for 30 minutes. I chilled mine a few hours.
Top your portioned cookies with some extra cranberries, almonds and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. I have sung the praises of turbinado sugar before. It adds a nice sugary crunch.
You can store these cookie in an air tight container for 3-4 days or freeze them to use later.
For a nice big, chewy, bakery style cookie try my Cranberry Almond Bakery Cookies.
Print
Cranberry Almond Bakery Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup almond butter
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup sliced almonds
- Dried cranberries, sliced almonds and turbinado sugar for garnish, if desired
Instructions
- Cream butter, almond butter, and both sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add egg, vanilla, almond extract, milk, baking soda, and salt and mix until well combined.
- Add flour and mix until dough just comes together. Stir dried cranberries and sliced almonds.
- Using an ice cream scoop (your choice of size) scoop cookie dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Press each scoop down slightly and top with dried cranberries, almonds and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar if desired.
- Place cookie sheet in the refrigerator and chill the dough 2- 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 11-14 minutes. I baked mine a little longer as they were fairly thick. Cool about 5 minutes and then remove from cookie sheets.
- Store in an airtight container. They may also be frozen.
Notes
Number of cookies depends on the size of scoop you use.
