Catching Up with Excuses and Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Cookies

My, my, my, has it already been a month and a half since I have written and almost two since I've shared a recipe? I know you hear this every time, but the time I spend away from home during the day sucks the life-force out of me and I don't feel comfortable cooking when my mom's hovering around anyway.

I did find an excuse to bake something three weeks ago (again, sorry for the delay) for one of the weekly poker nights my friends and I have here. I was originally going to make two different coloured roll-out cookies to take advantage of the card suit-shaped cookie cutters we have here, but it was a rainy day and by the time I'd mustered up the energy to copy down the recipe and procure the ingredients, I thought a drop cookie would be more appropriate time-wise.

Enter Lisa.

Lisa is a women's magazine from Hong Kong with a focus on food and cooking. Most of their issues are filled with Chinese recipes that I probably won't tackle anytime soon, but the cookies on the cover of this issue caught my eye (and of course, I can never resist recipes that call for scales!). Inside, the cookie feature took on a "theme and variation" sort of concept, with step-by-step illustrated instructions for the first recipe, and only slight changes in the fillings and types of sugars in the ones that followed. Since I had managed to scrounge up some walnuts and dried cranberries in our pantry, I decided to try the "Whole Wheat and Nut Cookie" recipe.



The cookies were a little too cakey for my taste, but were a nice sweet treat during our three-round night. The cranberries and walnuts added a welcome contrast in flavour and texture, although next time I might throw in a little oats for good measure.

Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut Cookies
Adapted from Lisa
Makes about 2 dozen

• 200 g butter, softened
• 150 g brown sugar
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) of vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 250 g whole wheat flour
• 1 mL (¼ tsp) baking soda
• 100 g dried cranberries
• 100 g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F)
2. Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Add in egg and whisk until smooth.
3. Sift flour and baking soda into butter mixture and mix well. Add in dried cranberry and walnut.
4. Line cookie tray with parchment paper and drop cookie onto tray by heaping tablespoonfuls. Press slightly. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Nutrition Info (per cookie): 104 calories, 6 g fat (2 g saturated), 26 mg cholesterol, 11 g carbohydrate (1 g fibre, 7 g sugar), 2 g protein, 44 mg sodium.

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