Cookaholics Bulletin Board

My sisters and I are driving to DC for my aunt's 90th birthday and I would like to take cookies. I'm not a great cookie baker. We leave on Wednesday and the party is Friday. The cookies will have to be made Tuesday.

Some time ago I had a cookie that was like a chip chocolate but it also had dried cranberries, walnuts and orange zest (I think). Instead of being flat, the cookies were more or less little balls. Can I just add the additional ingredients to a standard chip chocolate recipe?

Any recipe suggestions or books I should try? I really want these to be stellar.

Fitzie,

Well, they're nothing like what you talked about, but the CI Brown Butter cookies have great staying power ... they're still tasty for over a week.

Adding or substituting nuts, raisins, or whatever is common with most chocolate chip cookie recipes. At our house, due to my early childhood experiences, we tend to use the basic Nestles Toll House cookie recipe, adapted slightly to the altitude and the location (Philippines). But adding raisins or nuts is common. So regardless of the recipe, I'd say yes, simply balance the total amount of additives to be about equal to the previous total amount of chocolate chips that would have been added.

As for round versus flat or domed cookies, you got me on that one. No idea of how to make a traditional cookie recipe stay "round" when cooked.

Tatoosh

Fitzie - biscotti travel extremely well and usually impress most people. I just brought these camping to great raves. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... tti-102706
It's a favourite of mine.

I wonder if what you had wasn't a tricked up mexican wedding cookie...

Or you could do Brutti ma Buoni cookies, and substitute some of the ingredients:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mari ... index.html
http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2010/ ... -ma-buoni/

I always make spritz when I want a cookie with staying power. They seem to get better as they age. Some people think they're only for the holidays but I like them year round. Simple and delicious. You can dress them up with a little citrus glaze dribbled over.