Whole Wheat Cranberry Orange Cookies

When I baked cranberry muffins using fresh cranberries I did not know what to expect. My daughter absolutely loved the sweet and tart muffins. I took my cue and decided to bake more goodies with fresh cranberries. These fresh cranberry orange cookies were very well liked. They made their way into the school lunch box as dessert.

I am not big on cookies and we rarely have cookies in the house. Today my daughter had a big chemistry test so I decided to bake some cookies for her to snack on when she got back from school. I was thinking of chocolate when I suddenly decided on fresh cranberries. She did full justice to the cookies when she got home.

Instead of all purpose flour I used whole wheat flour. As such the cookies don't keep very well. If you plan to eat them over an extended period substitute 50% of wheat flour with all purpose flour. I did not add any nuts but you could add 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts if you like.

You will need
1/4 cup butter, melted
scant 1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. applesauce
2 tbsp. orange juice
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur organic white whole wheat flour)
a pinch baking powder
a pinch salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a bowl cream the butter and sugar together. Add the applesauce and orange juice. Beat until blended. Now mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Fold the flour into the butter mixture. Add the cranberries.

Mix together and drop large spoonfuls of the batter on a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes. The cookies will be very soft.

Gently transfer them to a cooling tray. They will harden just a little but these cookies are meant to be soft and moist.

Enjoy!