by Before Thanksgiving, I had bought a bag of cranberries to make a cranberry orange cake. However, I just never found the time to make the cake. Today I was making Speckulatus cookie dough to start my annual Christmas cookies; however, I also wanted to actually make a quick cookie that I could actually bake today, since the Christmas cookies won’t be ready to eat for a couple of days. I remembered the Cranberries in the freezer, and thought I would change my cranberry orange cake idea into cranberry orange cookies.
The cookies turned out very good… they were a nice soft texture, and the tart cranberry & orange flavors were very good. I tried to keep the sugar to a minimum- which I thought was perfect, especially since there is a powdered sugar icing drizzled over the top. However, if you are used to sweeter cookies, you might want to increase the granulated sugar in the recipe from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup.
Since my cranberries were frozen, I just gave them a quick rinse and then pulsed the few times in my mini food processor, and they chopped up nicely. However, I am sure that fresh cranberries would work just fine, too.
Vegan Cranberry Orange Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- ½ cup Vegan Butter Substitute (i.e. Earth Balance)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 2 Tablespoons orange juice
- ½ Tablespoon ground flax
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped cranberries
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Icing
- ¼ teaspoon orange zest
- 1 ½ Tablespoon orange juice
- ¾ cup confectioner's sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C)
- In a small bowl, mix flax seed with orange juice, and let set for a few minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together until smooth. Mix in orange zest and orange juice/flax see mixture. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter. Mix in cranberries and nuts.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets 2" apart.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are golden. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, and then remove to wire racks to continue to cool.
- In a small bowl, mix together ¼ teaspoon orange zest, 1½ orange juice and ¾ cup powdered sugar. Drizzle over the tops of the cooled cookies. Let stand until set.
