Nancy Jamison was right when she wrote us that these cookies are addictive. We loved their combination of coconut, cranberries, and orange. In fact, these straightforward, tasty rounds are everything a holiday cookie should be. The mixture will look dry until it comes together as a dough. If it's too crumbly to form into balls, the dough needs to be mixed longer; it should be a smooth, homogeneous mass.
These are amazing. For everyone who reviewed and said the dough doesn't come together. It's not supposed to be a big mass of dough. It is crumbly. And then you "shape it" into little balls with your hands. They are amazing and it takes 20 minutes. Top with powdered sugar to make them extra festive. LOVE
These cookies are SO ADDICTING!!! You can't eat just one! Or 3! They are easy to make, the recipe as is, is perfect - and they come out perfect every time!!! I've made them for at least 10 years, and never had a problem. Everyone LOVES them!!
Terrible recipe. Completely dissolves in the oven - Baking for 2 decades and this is one of the worst recipes I've encountered. A complete waste of expensive ingredients and valuable time
The cookie dough is so dry that it never came together. I tried mixing longer as suggested in the description but it never formed a ball. Had to throw out the batch.
I am taking the time to write my first ever online recipe review. I am an experienced baker and am disappointed in this recipe. The images looked fine as well as the ingredient list.
I hate wasting my time and ingredients. The taste is very good, the orange peel adds a lot to the flavour. LIke other reviewers have said, the dough did not come together. I added about 2 Tablespoons of milk to the dough. I rolled them and pressed down with a wet fork. After cooking, and I had to cook longer than suggested, I remain disappointed. I think the addition of eggs would make this a lot better and possibly more leavener. As is, it is a rather delicate and crisp shortbread style of cookie.
You got to be kidding me, this is an awful recipe. I've been baking cookies for over 30 years and this recipe never came together. "One amazing cookie" can't understand that. This recipe never came together for me, I beat in a KitchenAid mixer for a very look time and also mixed by hand, I added an egg like some of the recipes out there suggest and it never came together. I tried baking a cookie sheet with the dough and the cookies were not amazing, they weren't even good. DO NOT try this recipe, there are plenty of great recipes out there. Keep on going when you come across this one. Definitely not worth the time or money. I had to give a star rating but read it as a negative one rating. I rarely write reviews on any recipe I find online good or bad but this was so atrocious I had to take the time to tell everyone to stay far away.
these are the greatest, been making them since i first discovered in sunset magazine in 2001. i buy soft dried cranberries from the bulk section, much better than the hard, shriveled ones that are prepackaged. everyone always loves these and they get rave reviews. they are fragile so careful when removing from cookie sheet.
Really not a baker but these are easy and sooo good!!
EVERYONE loves these cookies. I've been making them at Christmas every year since this recipe first appeared. So so so yummy. You should make them, but they are addictive!
Instead of cranberries and white chocolate, I made spumoni cookies with one cup each of dried cherries, semi sweet chocolate chips, and chopped pistachios. A good filler staple for my cookie tin gifts.
Terrific Christmas (or anytime) cookie. I had no problem getting dough to come together, although it does take a bit of muscle to stir in cranberries and coconut. I whipped the butter and sugar mixture together until mixture was very light and doubled or tripled in volume. Then I stirred flour mix in until incorporated (about a minute) and folded in cranberries and coconut. Other changes I made were using lemon peel instead of orange and flattening balls slightly before baking. Baking time was longer as mine took 13 minutes for edges to become a light golden brown. A keeper!
This recipe was great - but I was using a big mixer which brought the dough together. I had some older dried cranberries to use, so I fluffed them in the microwave by boiling in water and then patting dry - these made the cranberry taste even better.
Love these - chewy, sweet little treasures!
Loved it, and this was my first cookie bake of my life.And turned out perfect.
Favorite of all the holiday cookies we made this year!
We just finished making this cookie and despite mixing for at least 7 minutes, the dough never came together in a "homogeneous mass". We both checked the recipe several times to ensure we hadn't missed an ingredient. After our first batch, we decided to add an egg to the remaining dough and the resulting cookies were perfect! The eggless batch taste like shortbread cookies, while those with egg were chewy and soft. Great tasting cookies, but we think it's missing the binding ingredient needed to produce the "chewy" cookie proclaimed in the recipe.
I found this recipe last year, and I loved it! This year when I made it, I confused the butter directions--1 1/2 cups = 3 sticks! I tried to use just 1 1/2 sticks! I recognized that something was amiss, but it took me a while to figure out what! They are delicious!!
Based on all the reviews, I was excited about these cookies. But I found them bland and boring. If you like buttery shortbread type cookies, these may be for you - but I just found the flavor profile lacking.
DELISH!!! My friend and I make these every year at our annual cookie baking extravaganza. It's the butter and orange zest that make them to die for! Recipe does not need tweaking!
This is my #1 Christmas cookie recipe. I've made them every year since they won in Sunset. You must have patience, have a stand mixer, wait until the crumbles clump back together. I zest one huge orange with a microplane grinder and don't measure it. Love these. And I'm a chocolate lover.
Easy and fabulous, these have become a Christmas tradition in our house. Even those who don't normally like coconut love these cookies.
A staple for any holiday gathering.
These cookies are tasty, but the one thing that the reviews and instructions do not say clearly enough is that you should mix it to death BEFORE the cranberries and coconut. I mixed mine for more than five minutes and could see that it was coming together so added my cranberries and coconut. Then after the first batch came out of the oven without flattening out I started mixing some more to make it less crumbly. now my cookies are pinkish. Not near as pretty as the first batch, but they did spread finally. I recommend mixing it even more than you think you should in the beginning (definatley more than 5 minutes).
My husband's late grandmother first made these (because the creator was from her old hometown) and served them at Christmas. Neither of us profess to like coconut but these were amazing! I have since made them every year and they are one of the first cookies to go and the recipe is often requested! Don't bake too long, chewy is better.
