My Favorite Christmas Cookie

These are my absolute favorite Christmas Cookie. I love the combination of cranberry and orange and the sugar on the outside gives them a little sparkle. Perfect for Christmas!

Cranberry Orange Cookies

makes about 3 dozen

Sugar Mixture:

1/3 cup sugar

1 t freshly grated orange peel

(Instead of the orange peel, this time I used the left over sugar from rolling the candied orange peels I made. It was infused with the orange flavor and worked really well.)

Cookie:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 egg

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

1 T freshly grated orange peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar mixture ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside. Combine sugar, butter and egg in a large bowl and beat, at medium speed, until creamy. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture. Beat until well mixed. Add cranberries and orange peel and continue to beat until just mixed.

Shape dough into 1" balls and roll in the balls in the sugar mixture. Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the balls with the bottom of a glass to 1 1/2" circles.

Bake for 7-11 minutes, until edges are very lightly browned, Do not over bake, the best part about these cookies is the soft, chewy texture. Cool for about 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet (they will be soft when they first come out of the oven).