A New Favorite Cookie
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, because the food is always delicious and the company is superb. Yet, there is another reason why I love this holiday so much; Friday night is Thanksabbat. Thanks-a-what?
Thanksabbat is the ‘holiday’ we created years ago for the Shabbat after Thanksgiving. I have done this holiday with Ellen and Marc Kaufman, and the combination of kids who are available, for more years than I can count. The food for this ‘new’ holiday is the leftovers that each household has from the big feast on Thursday.
I can truly say that I think there is a part of all of us that looks forward to Thanksabbat more than Thanksgiving. This year was no exception. The Kaufmans are truly a part of our ‘family,’ the ones who are so much a part of our life that they are, indeed, family.
When it came to dessert this year, we were in heaven. There were at least a dozen desserts from which we could choose. One that stood out as over-the-top wonderful was the Cranberry-White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Cookie that Ellen baked. It was delicious and I, immediately, asked for the recipe.
I must admit that after Thanksgiving, I just did not have the desire to bake with cranberries. Fortunately, I had plenty of dried cherries in the pantry, so I simply substituted them for the cranberries.
I am so glad that I did. The combination of the cherries, white chocolate and roasted macadamia nuts worked perfectly together.
This holiday season, I highly recommend offering Cherry-White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Cookies on Christmas Eve. Who knows, maybe these will be Santa’s new favorite cookies, too!
| Cherry-White Chocolate-Macadamia Nut Cookies | Print |
- 1 cup roasted & salted macadamia nuts
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups dried cherries
- 1½ cups white chocolate chunks
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Coarsely chop macadamia nuts and set aside.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- Place the butter, brown sugar and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl down as needed. Add eggs, one at a time followed by vanilla.
- Blend in dry ingredients. Lastly mix in macadamia nuts, dried cherries and white chocolate chunks.
- Use a 1½ teaspoon cookie scoop to generously scoop the dough into balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets. ‘
- Bake at 350° for 14 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cool on baking sheets.
