A Cookie Should Be Two Things: Simple and Tasty.

I haven't made cookies since I spent an entire day working on those bewitching swirl Halloween cookies on October 1. It took forever, and quite frankly, my brand of perfectionism is of the lazy variety. I won't have a tombstone one day, but if I did, it would read, "Worked Smarter, Not Harder." I won't be lacking in the tombstone department because I've found the secret to immortality; I just want to be cremated, thus bringing my work smarter, not harder mantra full circle. Anyway, spending ten hours baking cookies just isn't something I was interested in doing again anytime soon. And I'm not gonna lie, when I think hand-held desserts, I typically go immediately to cupcakes. Taking a full-scale cake and bringing it down to bite-sized deliciousness without the need for a fork? Yep...once more, working smarter. So I needed a dessert that was quick, worked with staple pantry items, and for the sake of my husband's sanity, didn't involve an ounce of pumpkin spice (don't worry, it'll be back in the next blog). Along came a cookie I thought I'd ground test for holiday baking season: the cranberry white chocolate chip cookie.

It's a perfect "After Food Coma" cookie for Thanksgiving or Christmas!

Don't worry, I kept burgeoning waistlines in mind. Because when you sit down to eat a cookie, this weird thing always happens where five minutes later you've suddenly realized you ate six cookies at once. The original recipe I found had insanely high calorie content...over 200 calories for one cookie. That's a hearty slice of delicious roasted bird and some! Naturally, when I want to make something happen, I find a way. I adapted the pants off of the original recipe using some tried and true (and super easy) calorie-cutting methods. Did I mention I like working smarter and not harder? I may have. In this case, I lowered the calorie content to 95 calories a cookie (more than halved the original amount!) so I wouldn't have to work harder with a Jillian Michael's boot camp. Never underestimate the power of a fit girl who wants dessert.

May or may not be buying my Craisins in bulk and adding them to literally everything this month.

Now, I know some people love fluffy, soft cookies and others love crunchy, flatter cookies. I'm Team Fluffy (there's definitely a missed joke opportunity in that), but I am going to divulge how to make these if you're Team Crunchy, too. Sorry, the only thing I like crunchy is my pizza crust, so you're never going to convert me. But in either case, you'll need:

• 1/4 cup butter at room temp
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup Truvia Baking Blend
• 1/4 cup Truvia Brown Sugar Blend
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 TBS heavy cream (you can use skim milk to cut more calories, but I had heavy cream leftover I needed to use!)
• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1 cup of white chocolate chips
• 1 cup of 50% less sugar Craisins
• Optional:
•  I felt like a tsp or two of orange zest would've taken these cookies to the next level and complemented the cranberries so, so well. Definitely trying this next time!
• If you hate white chocolate: replace with dark chocolate, semisweet chocolate, or cinnamon chips...all these flavors complement cranberry, so dealer's choice!

Now, if you're on Team Crunchy, preheat your oven to 350 and line a few baking sheets with Parchment paper lightly misted with cooking spray. My fellow Team Fluffy folks, don't preheat your oven yet. Regardless of your cookie texture preference, start by creaming the butter, both Truvias, and the applesauce for a few minutes in your stand mixer (use the paddle!). Scrape down the bowl before adding anything else. Things are going to look a lot like oatmeal when they're all mixed:

I promise you, it doesn't stay like this.

 Next, add in the egg, vanilla, and heavy cream/milk. Blend well, scraping down the bowl once mixed. Once well mixed, add in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Blend on low so as not to cause an explosion of flour all over your kitchen. Fun times.

I didn't lie--it looks like perfectly normal cookie dough now!

At this point, I definitely sampled the wares. I had yet to bake with the brown sugar Truvia, so I was sampling in the name of science. Things tasted perfectly normal to me, and I haven't grown a third arm or anything weird, so I say, use it.

Mmm, Craisins.

I won't lie--not the biggest fan of white chocolate. I really only like it in cookies. I once had a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie so good, it converted me into both a white chocolate chip and a macadamia nut lover. But my personal eating history aside, now you'll want to add in the cup of chips and the cup of dried cranberries. Blend on low. Your mixer will sound like it's either dying or trying to become sentient to kill you for making it mix so many chips. I may have watched Maximum Overdrive recently.

Resisted the urge to eat a dough ball.

Once mixed, grease a tablespoon or a cookie scoop. This recipe should yield you 32 little balls of cookie dough, so scoop away and place on the prepared baking trays. To make them look even more delicious, add a few chips and cranberries on top (baker's secret...I do this with all my chip-based cookies). Okay Team Crunchy: at this point, you will want to bake your cookies 8-12 at a time on your prepared baking tray at 350 for 10-11 minutes or until golden on the top rack of the oven. By not freezing your dough, it will flatten out a lot during baking, so leave plenty of space between cookies. Let your cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Team Fluffy: cover your cookies with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30-45 minutes.

Partially frozen little disks of Heaven. Like a CPK freezer pizza.

By freezing the dough, you're preventing the cookies from getting thin. Take your dough out of the freezer, and slightly flatten them from ball to disk like pictured above. You will cook your cookies at 350 for 9-10 minutes on the top rack of the oven (no burning bottoms this way! I have dark baking sheets). I under bake a tad to ensure my cookies are super soft in the middle once they've cooled. Am I worried about Salmonella, you ask? I live life dangerously. Well, danger adjacent. Sigh...this is probably the most dangerous thing I do these days. Bake your cookies 8-12 at a time; they won't expand too much, but do leave space between cookies. They'll be done when they're just barely turning golden.

My middle name is Cautious.

Let your cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack for your viewing pleasure.

Stackable! Portable! Edible!

Aren't they cute? They're also scrumptious. They are so sweet and so soft...pillowy even. I feel like they simply melt on my tongue when I eat them. They're packed with tart cranberries, smooth white chocolate chips, and they took no time at all to make--this is everything I'm looking for in a cookie. It's always wonderful when I can bake something that both looks and tastes amazing in the amount of time it takes me to watch one baking show on Food Network. Yeah, I'm one of those people. I'm addicted to baking shows. But luckily for you guys, I'm not so full of myself that I started naming things in French or using super complex terminology. I mean, I admit I still eat cookie dough out of the bowl. If that's not relatable, I don't know what is. Just make the cookies and tell me you don't eat half the dough along the way. If you can hold out though, the end results are positively perfect for your next holiday bake off. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

Yep, still using Halloween napkins. Bring it on, Christmas!