Cranberry coconut chews

I've been feeling like myself again, which has resulted in a much cleaner house and a lot of tastiness.

I recently read a culinary mystery (one of my favorite genres) that included a cookie recipe with toasted pecans. Right after that, I had the thought that I wanted to make cookies or scones with cranberries, orange peel, and toasted pecans.

Yesterday I owed "thank-you" cookies to someone and decided to follow up on my idea.  I looked in one of my tastiest cookbooks for a recipe to tweak and found one that was already almost perfect.  I made a smaller batch and altered it to what I wanted, and I think the results are divine.  I had never toasted pecans before and I'm in love.

Cranberry Coconut Chews
(makes about 2 dozen)

1/2 C butter, softened
2/3 C sugar
1 tsp dried orange peel
3/4 tsp vanilla
1 1/8 C all-purpose flour
1/3 tsp baking powder
dash salt
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C sweetened shredded coconut
1/3 C chopped pecans


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Add just enough water to the orange peel to re-hydrate it.  Mix together butter, sugar, orange peel, and vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder, salt.  The dough will seem a little dry and it might take a little work to combine the ingredients - I did it by hand.  


Put the pecans in a pan in your preheated oven for 5-7 minutes.  They will darken and taste great, but be careful not to burn them.


Add the cranberries, coconut, and pecans to your dough.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place 1-2 inches apart on greased baking sheets or parchment paper.  Bake until cookie edges just begin to brown, 8-11 minutes.  (They might not seem done, but there is no egg to cook and the cooling time helps finish them.  You can also flatten them when you pull them out of the oven.)  Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before carefully moving to cooling rack.  


They melt in your mouth when warm but still taste good when cooled.  Nathan hates the texture of coconut but he said these cookies are good.  The original recipe is all over the internet too, so I'm not sure whom to credit.