Fresh Cranberry Lemon Cookies
Winter has arrived! Have I already said that this year? Well I'm serious now: we have over a foot of snow on the ground here in town, and have plenty to ski on in the mountains! Woohoo! Not to mention holiday parties and vacation plans galore. We're going to have a busy couple of months!
Despite being MIA from the interwebs recently (whoops!), I have been cooking up a storm. Soups, bread, muffins, cookies, pies (a LOT of pies!) - you name it, I've been making it! We passed my one year blogiversary last week, and I realized I've learned a lot about cooking through my year of documented cooking. I'm confident making things I used to never make (hello, soup!). We're eating more vegetables, in a wider variety of ways. Honestly, we're eating way fewer desserts because I just don't crave them like I used to. WHAT!? I know: blasphemy. That said, I'm still eating my fair share of sugary delights.
With this onset of winter, I'm now on a cranberry kick. Maybe this isn't apparent to you all (yet), but I bought a massive bag of fresh cranberries from Costco last week... and I can't stop baking with them! I probably shouldn't admit this, but I don't think I'd actually ever cooked with fresh cranberries. Like, ever. Until now! I think my main source of calories in the last week are cranberry muffins and cookies. They're delicious!
These cookies are soft and cakey, with a sweet lemon background punctuated by tart, fresh cranberries. Top them with a lemon glaze, with which you CANNOT go wrong, and BOOM: AWESOME cookies! Be careful - I'm had a hard time not eating them all in one sitting. I think I might have to make these again next week for Thanksgiving!
Fresh Cranberry Lemon Cookies
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod
2 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups fresh cranberries, diced
½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
With clean fingers, rub the lemon zest into the sugar until no lumps remain. It should be fragrant! Cream the lemon-sugar with the butter until light and fluffy - 3-5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
Gently add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add the cranberries and fold in by hand.
Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Once chilled, form the dough into balls and bake for 13-15 minutes at 350 F on parchment lined cookies sheets.
Let the cookies cool slighly before moving them to a rack. Mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together, and drizzle over fully-cooled cookies.
These cookies sound so good. Maybe this is what I should do with the two bags of cranberries that have been kicking around my freezer since last winter.. 🙂
Absolutely! They're really easy to throw together, and seriously addictive. I'm eating my last few right now... yikes!
😂 toofunny
Yes, please make them for Thanksgiving ... ! Looking forward to it, they sound amazing.
These sound amazing! I love anything with lemon...but as for the cranberries, did you cook them at all? Or just take the bag of crans and chop away?
Thanks 🙂
Hi Angela! I didn't cook them at all! They were totally raw, but cooked enough in the cookies during baking. They are delicious!
Big bags of cranberries at Costco? I'm keeping that in mind for sure. All I have is one little bag from the grocery store. It's best to go high-volume with stuff like this.
Cranberry and lemon sounds like such a refreshing combination!
These were a big hit at coffee hour on Sunday!
I took these cookies to coffee hour on Sunday and they were a big hit with everyone!
Yay! Glad to hear it! See you SOON!
I have cranberry-lime in my head...but there is a lack of recipes out there for what I have pictured. Thinking I can adapt this, but I'd love to hear your opinion on it.
Ooh what a great idea! I think you could totally swap the lemon out for lime here — let me know how it goes!!
I have been making these for several years & is the most requested treat I make at Christmas. THANKS!
These have become a holiday staple in our home since I found this recipe several years ago. My daughter used to stand on a stool to frost these on the counter and now shes 14 and can make them all by herself 🙂 Sooo delicious and they freeze very well once baked. I usually make a double (or triple) batch around Thanksgiving and freeze half for Christmas time. Thank you for such a wonderful recipe!
These are quite nice. Used frozen cranberries which made them a little slippery to roll with the cut juicy pieces, but they came out fine. I’m sure a lime version would be just as good. Thank you!