Category — Fruit Hack

Cranegranate Chocolate Chip morsels

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

Ahh, I love BeerandBlog. We showcased the Bacon Chocolate Chip cookie to rave reviews. Thank you all for you kind comments. Also, I want to thank those of you whom I spoke with who gave me a plethora of ideas for other cookie hacks. Tonight, I ventured down one of those paths.

Trader Joe’s (one of my favorite stores) offers packaged dried berries, fruit and nuts. This combination offers many options for the cookie hacker. At BeerandBlog, @morganpdx suggested the Orange Cranberry mix from Trader Joe’s, yet while I was there, I saw the Cranberry/Pomegranate mix which I could not ignore. I have been wanting to do something with pomegranate for a week, and this offered up the chance. I am such a fan of cranberries, I had to combine them.

Something else I tried was to do a 1/2 batch. See, with all the cookies in the house, my waistline has been expanding. Instead of 4 dozen, I made about 2 dozen, which is manageable.

Cranegranate Chocolate Chip morsels:

1/2 cup Tillamook butter (salted)
1/3 cup plus a spoonful of organic brown sugar
1/3 cup plus a spoonful of organic sugar
1/2 tsp organic vanilla extract
1 large white eggs (Stebbs Farms Cage Free veggie diet)

1 1/8 cups flour (I used normal unbleached flour from Gold brand)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 bag Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup Cranberry/Pomegranate seed mix (Trader Joe’s)

Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl. Add eggs and whisk (I don’t have a blender.) Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Chill in fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up. Drop onto cookie sheet the size of a spoonful. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on rack before storing.

Orangy Chocolate Chippy

One of my first cookie hacks was to add the zest from an orange to the mix before I baked them. I’m not sure why I did it other than I was eating an orange while I was making the cookies and just thought - hey, what about zest? I have a pretty basic grater, so just threw it in, along with some juice.

The orange flavor adds so much to the cookie and reminded me that when I go to the store, I usually see chocolate bars with orange. What would a cookie be like with other citrus zet? Lemon? Lime? Grapefruit? Does grapefruit zest have a strong grapefruit flavor? Hmm, gotta try that.

Orangy Chocolae Chippy Cookie

1 cup Tillamook butter  (salted)
3/4 cup organic brown sugar
3/4 cup organic sugar
2 large white eggs  (Stebbs Farms Cage Free veggie diet)

2 1/4 cups flour (I used normal unbleached flour from Gold brand)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp organic vanilla extract
1 bag Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Chocolate Chips
2 tbsp zest from Valencia orange.

Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl.  Add eggs and beat.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Chill in fridge for 30 minutes.  Drop onto cookie sheet the size of a spoonful.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.