Fresh Cranberry Lemon Cookies

Winter has arrived! Have I already said that this year? Well I'm serious now: we have over a foot of snow on the ground here in town, and have plenty to ski on in the mountains! Woohoo! Not to mention holiday parties and vacation plans galore. We're going to have a busy couple of months!

Despite being MIA from the interwebs recently (whoops!), I have been cooking up a storm. Soups, bread, muffins, cookies, pies (a LOT of pies!) — you name it, I've been making it! We passed my one year blogiversary last week, and I realized I've learned a lot about cooking through my year of documented cooking. I'm confident making things I used to never make (hello, soup!). We're eating more vegetables, in a wider variety of ways. Honestly, we're eating way fewer desserts because I just don't crave them like I used to. WHAT!? I know: blasphemy. That said, I'm still eating my fair share of sugary delights.

With this onset of winter, I'm now on a cranberry kick. Maybe this isn't apparent to you all (yet), but I bought a massive bag of fresh cranberries from Costco last week... and I can't stop baking with them! I probably shouldn't admit this, but I don't think I'd actually ever cooked with fresh cranberries. Like, ever. Until now! I think my main source of calories in the last week are cranberry muffins and cookies. They're delicious!

These cookies are soft and cakey, with a sweet lemon background punctuated by tart, fresh cranberries. Top them with a lemon glaze, with which you CANNOT go wrong, and BOOM: AWESOME cookies! Be careful — I'm had a hard time not eating them all in one sitting. I think I might have to make these again next week for Thanksgiving!

Fresh Cranberry Lemon Cookies

Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

2 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups fresh cranberries, diced

½ cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

With clean fingers, rub the lemon zest into the sugar until no lumps remain. It should be fragrant! Cream the lemon-sugar with the butter until light and fluffy - 3-5 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

Gently add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Add the cranberries and fold in by hand.

Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Once chilled, form the dough into balls and bake for 13-15 minutes at 350 F on parchment lined cookies sheets.

Let the cookies cool slighly before moving them to a rack. Mix the powdered sugar and lemon juice together, and drizzle over fully-cooled cookies.