Cranberry, Pecan and White Chocolate Cookies - Sweet and Simple Bakes

Its a good thing that one of my New Year Resolutions wasn't to be more organised in the kitchen. If it was I would have failed miserably already! We had an extension on our deadline for the Christmas Sweet and Simple Bake posting date and I have still managed to leave it to the death knock to whip a batch of these very scrummy cookies up. In fact, the last batch is still in the oven as I type!!!

Again, Maria is to be complemented on her choice for us. Lets face it, this month's recipe was going to have to be pretty fantastic to beat those brownies we all made in the lead up to Christmas. These cookies are outstanding, Hubby and I can't stop eating them straight off the cooling rack! They take me back to my childhood, coming home from school to find Mum had been baking. The only thing that could make the moment any better was (and still is!) a tall glass of ice cold milk.

Cranberry, Pecan and White Chocolate Cookies

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

75g rolled oats (not instant)

125g butter, softened

75g dark brown sugar

100g caster sugar (I used vanilla caster sugar to bump up the vanilla flavour - mmm)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

75g dried cranberries

50g pecans, roughly chopped

150g white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and rolled oats into a bowl.

Put the butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy. Then beat in the egg and vanilla.

Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and oat mixture and then fold in the cranberries, chopped pecans and chocolate chips. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into a ball with your hands (I used a small ice cream scoop), then place them on a lined or greased baking sheet and squish the dough balls down with a fork. I missed this step but the cookies are none the worse for it!

Cook for 12 to 15 mins. When ready, the cookies will be tinged a pale gold but they will be too soft to lift immediately. Leave on the tray on a cool surface and let them firm up for about 5 mins. Remove with a spatula to cool fully (ahem!) on a wire rack.

Makes 30

Sweet and Simple Bakes

These are great as they are, but next time I think I will try macadamia nuts in the mix instead of the pecans. And if your thinking the cranberries are looking a bit light on then you would be right. In this batch I added slightly more white chocolate drops and pecans than listed because I was a bit short of the required amount of dried cranberries. I think these ones will be added to next year's Christmas Hampers for the girls ... if only I had been a bit more organised they could have had them this year!