Decadent Pecan-Cranberry & Chocolate Chip Muffin-Top Cookies

Sometimes, I get a strong urge to bake something delicious without a recipe or scales, and just see what happens. You often have to fold in a tiny bit more flour than you expect initially, until you try to arrive at a consistency that most closely resembles cookie dough before baking.
I made a couple variations of this recipe during the past week, and was very satisfied by the end result: These come out like cookie-inspired muffin-tops, loaded with dried cranberries, pecans, and chocolate chips.
We’ve been eating them for breakfast, and not feeling bad about it.
This recipe is designed to be a smaller batch, and makes about 14 cookies.

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Decadent Pecan-Cranberry & Chocolate Chip Muffin-Top Cookies

Sometimes, I get a strong urge to bake something delicious without a recipe or scales, and just see what happens. You often have to fold in a tiny bit more flour than you expect initially, until you try to arrive at a consistency that most closely resembles cookie dough before baking.

I made a couple variations of this recipe during the past week, and was very satisfied by the end result: These come out like cookie-inspired muffin-tops, loaded with dried cranberries, pecans, and chocolate chips.

We’ve been eating them for breakfast, and not feeling bad about it.

This recipe is designed to be a smaller batch, and makes about 14 cookies.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp salted butter, softened
• 3 Tbsp cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 whole egg, room temperature
• A tiny pinch (about 1/8 tsp) kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ cup + 2 Tbsp flour, or more to achieve desired cookie-dough consistency
• ½ cup pecans, chopped
• ½ cup cranberries, finely diced
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips, finely chopped

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 375F.
• Cream softened butter, cream cheese, and white and brown sugar together with the vanilla extract until fully combined.
• Add the whole egg and mix until fully combined and smooth.
• Mix the salt, baking soda, and flour together in a separate small bowl using a fork or whisk.
• Use a rubber spatula to incorporate the dry mixture into the wet mixture in two stages, checking for the consistency of the final dough.
• If you need to add a bit more flour, fold in some more flour until you arrive at your ideal cookie-dough consistency.
• *Make sure at this stage that your cranberries and nuts and chocolate chips are chopped down to a small size.
• *It is OK if you still have a tiny bit of visible flour in the dough, as you are about to add your cranberries, nuts, and chocolate chips and fold them in.
• Carefully fold in the cranberries, nuts, and chocolate chips into the batter, trying to evenly distribute them throughout the batter without over-stirring.
• Place small golf-ball sized balls of batter onto parchment paper on a sheet tray.
• Bake at 375 for about 12-14 minutes, or until your muffin-top cookies at golden brown and fully cooked.
• Allow to rest at room temperature before serving.

Notes

These cookies keep for a week or more when covered in an airtight container in the fridge. You can also freeze them and they taste great. Eat them with ice cream, or for breakfast.