QUICK AND EASY CRANBERRY COOKIES and a GREAT TIP!

I love to make these cookies at Valentine's Day!  They're so tiny, cute and tasty!  They're also super easy because they start with a mix!  If you stick around a minute...I'll show you how you can easily make them heart-shaped as well! 

In fact, I have a quick trick that you can use to make almost any cookie heart-shaped, without having to cut them out!

Cute, right?  Follow along for this little trick! 

The ingredients for this recipe are few and simple......just 5 in fact!

1 pkg. (15.6oz) Cranberry Quick Bread Mix

1/2 C. Butter, melted

  1 egg

1/2 C. dried cranberries

1/2 C. finely chopped pecans

Now I'm all for quick when it comes to baking, so instead of chopping my pecans, I like to put them in the food processor.  I like them a little more than "finely chopped"...mine are almost ground.

In a large bowl, combine the bread mix, melted butter, pecans and egg; mix well.  Stir in the dried cranberries.  Roll into one inch balls.  (I just use a cookie scoop....so much easier!)  Place 3" apart on a cookie sheet. Let me just say that I always spray mine with cooking oil first.

Here's what makes these cookies so sparkly on top........

Flatten to 1/8" thickness with a glass dipped in sugar. (I used a jar.)

(Here's a tip:  Flatten the first cookie and then dip the jar in the sugar and go back and just set it on the cookie.  Now your jar will have a little bit of oil on it and the sugar will stick to it just fine.)     

 

NOW HERE'S THE HEART SHAPED TRICK.....

All I did was use the bottom of my heart-shaped cookie cutter to make an indentation in the cookie.  Then, using my index finger and my thumb, I just pinched the bottom into a point, much like you would do when making a fluted pie crust.  So easy right??!!!  If you don't have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, you can use anything that has a V-shape.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until light golden brown.  Makes about 50 cute little cookies.  

I didn't make all of mine heart-shaped, but the ones that I did, I took to this beautiful woman......

This is my good friend Harriet.  She's 87 years old.  She always has something interesting to say when I go to visit her.  She would only let me take her picture if I included her Amaryllis, which had 6 blooms on it.  I love Harriet.  She makes a pretty mean cranberry cookie herself, but it's her Strawberry Pie and homemade jams that we all adore!   

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