Playing swapsies with white chocolate, macadamia and cranberry cookies

Yes, that’s right, my first ever cookie swap, (actually, my first time sending anything edible in the mail- must carry on correcting that!) went without a hitch. 

Chocolate orange

My swap experience kicked off before I’d even made a single batch with a parcel from foodiebob. His crunchy chocolate orange cookies were gorgeous with a cup of tea- the perfect texture to hold up to a good dunking! These cookies were moreish and so easy to nibble on, they vanished the fastest of all three boxes. Generally, I make cookies with a little more squidge in them, which could explain why Tom made four of them vanish lickity-split; variety being the spice of life and all that.

triple chocolate-ginger biscotti

Speaking of spice, the most beautiful package I received was from Soup Tuesday, ginger and triple chocolate biscotti. I’ve actually never had biscotti before but they’re definitely something I’d have a bash at now, they kept for ages in a tin and stood up amazingly well after a morning in my bag, to be ready, unbroken, to have with my lunchtime coffee. The ginger was totally delicious too and, although, as a non-milk drinker, I couldn’t verify myself how good they are with the recommended glass of milk, Tom was happy to test (with over half the box) and reckons the combo couldn’t be beat.

beautiful biscotti wrapping

The last package I received was from Bakery Cottage and contained what was voted the house’s favourite overall (although out of the three of us, each had a different top choice, how diplomatic of us!) This hazelnut cookie, dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in chopped nuts, was so smooth and rich that one really should have been enough. That totally didn’t happen though, so these disappeared faster than anyone could say ‘So, when’re you making these then?’ You could almost taste the butter that’d been worked into these, and they just melted away.

hazlenut melts

And me? I made my brand new favourite squishy cookie recipe. I did try very, very hard with Florentines, but with a success rate of about 60% and Tom on hand to tell me that if he’d gotten fruit and almonds on a bit of chocolate when he was expecting cookies, he’d call trading standards, I scrapped that idea two days before the deadline and mass catered with my favourite flavour combinations. White chocolate and cranberry is a partnership I can be boring about for a long time (and already have been on this site), but the added crunch of macadamias was something new and I loved it!

White chocolate, macadamia and cranberry cookies

(makes about 15, so I had plenty left over from 3 batches!) 

250g of the chocolate, nut and fruit mixture. 

 (I used a choc:nut:berry ratio of 2:1:1, but really start mixing in a

separate bowl and see what looks good.)

300g sugar

(a mix of brown/white- I used 200g light brown and 100g golden caster)

170g butter

250g self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

2tsp vanilla extract

1 egg, 1 yolk 

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C

2. Melt butter with the sugars. Let it cool.

3. Add vanilla and egg

4. Drop in the flour and salt and fold it in. 

5. Add in the bits.

6. Bake heaped tablespoons of the mixture for about 15 mins.

The cookies firm up a lot after they come out, so don't let them bake til set. If they look too underdone to get off the tray, chances are they're just peachy!