Cranberry-Honey Walnut Drops
Photo Credit : Michael PiazzaDuring the 1940s, when government sugar rationing made baking a challenge, Rumford Baking Powder (of Rumford, Rhode Island) ran an ad with a recipe for cookies sweetened with honey. With today’s locavores in mind, we updated the recipe for cranberry-honey walnut drops with a combination of honey and maple syrup (for flavor) and added lots of chopped cranberries and walnuts for both flavor and texture. Vanilla is the only ingredient that can’t be grown in New England, but you can buy locally brewed vanilla extract from Charles H. Baldwin & Sons of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
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Yield:
about 4 dozen cookiesIngredients
3 cups fresh cranberries, plus about 2 cups additional berries for garnish
1-1/2 cups walnut halves (preferably local black walnuts)
1-3/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 large egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350° and position the racks in the middle, with space in between. Grease two cookie (baking) sheets or line with parchment paper.
Put 3 cups of cranberries and the walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mixture looks like a coarse, chunky meal. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or in a large bowl, if using a hand-held mixer), cream the butter, honey, and maple syrup until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat 1 minute.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and beat until combined. Add the chopped cranberry/nut mixture, and stir with a spatula until evenly distributed.
Drop the dough onto the baking sheets a heaping tablespoon at a time, 2 inches apart. Cut the cranberries for the garnish in half and decorate each cookie with a few halves, cut side up. Bake until lightly browned, rotating pans halfway through, 15 to 17 minutes. Repeat with any remaining dough. Cool on wire racks, then serve.
Amy Traverso
Amy Traverso is the senior food editor at Yankee magazine and co-host of the public television series Weekends with Yankee, a coproduction with WGBH. Previously, she was food editor at Boston magazine and an associate food editor at Sunset magazine. Her work has also been published in The Boston Globe, Saveur, and Travel & Leisure, and she has appeared on Hallmark Home & Family, The Martha Stewart Show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay, and Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. Amy is the author of The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which was a finalist for the Julia Child Award for best first-time author and won an IACP Cookbook Award in the “American” category.
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