Leftover Dressing and Cranberry Cookies
With all of the recipes for leftover Thanksgiving dishes out there, I was challenged to offer you something unique that you couldn’t find anywhere else. Although you might be a little hesitant to try this one out, I can promise you that it was amazing.
So you love turkey and you love dressing, right? Tell me honestly that you don’t ever take a little of both on your fork before taking your bite. The same goes for your dressing and your cranberry sauce. In fact, I use the sweetness of my homemade cranberry sauce to sweeten each and every one of the recipes on my plate during holiday meals. The turkey gets a little, the dressing gets a little, and even the roll might have some slathered on it.
In fact, I think it’s one of those unspoken but mandatory eating requirements to eat a bite of cranberry sauce with every bite of anything else on your holiday plate. When you think about it, Thanksgiving dressing isn’t typically really strong flavored. It’s really basically bread, celery and onions, which are light flavors that work well with the other flavors on your Thanksgiving plate, but lend a little bit of their own uniqueness.
Some dressings even include cranberries, nuts, apples, and/or raisins, all of which would be amazing in a cookie. And with the bread filling, your cookies already have a base. Let’s get creative and think about Thanksgiving leftovers a little bit differently this year. Branch out, try a few new things, and experiment with your food. You have plenty of it leftover in the fridge don’t you?
I know you’ll really enjoy these cookies if you give them a chance! Let me show you how I put mine together and then it's your turn to give them a shot.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 1 cup real butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, homemade preferred
- 2 1/2 cups leftover dressing, (See my recipe for cornbread dressing.)
- 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped leftover cranberries, (or leftover cranberry sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add all ingredients, dry ingredients first, then leftovers, then eggs, vanilla, and melted butter.
- Drop your cookie dough by the tablespoonful onto your prepared cookie sheets. Or roll it into balls with your hands.
- Bake for exactly 10 minutes, removing before they turn brown.
Nutritional Information
Nutrition Facts | |
---|---|
Serving size: 1 cookie | |
Calories | 230 |
Calories from Fat | 63 |
% Daily Value * | |
Fat 7 g | 11% |
Saturated fat 2 g | 10% |
Unsaturated fat 2 g | |
Carbohydrates 41 g | 14% |
Sugar 12 g | |
Fiber 0 g | |
Protein 2 g | 4% |
Cholesterol 0 mg | |
Sodium 135 mg | 6% |
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. |
I would personally use the dressing as is in this recipe and enjoy all of the different flavors that your dressing has to offer in your cookies. I can understand if certain parts of your stuffing just simply don’t sound appealing in your cookies and you wish to remove them, like the celery and onion for instance. At least give it a shot with everything included before you make a decision like this though.
If you’d prefer to use leftover cranberry sauce, whether jelly or whole berries, to chopped fresh cranberries, go for it! I would substitute 2 tablespoons of jelly or 4 tablespoons of whole berry sauce to one egg in your recipe though. You don’t want too much liquid in your cookies or they won’t come together like they’re supposed to, and you don’t want to completely do away with your eggs or everything won’t stick together.
If you feel a little creative, toss some chopped nuts into your cookie dough, some chocolate chips, or even some white chocolate chips (like you see in the example above). This will really help to make this recipe your own. For more creative Thanksgiving leftover ideas, check out my recipes for Incredible Leftover Turkey Chili, Delicious Leftover Turkey Enchiladas, Crispy Leftover Turkey Alfredo Pizza, , Scrumptious Leftover Cranberry Bread, Sweet Leftover Cranberry Barbeque Sauce, Leftover Mashed Potato/Sweet Potato Pancakes, and Leftover Pumpkin Pie/Apple Pie Milkshakes.
Enjoy your cookies!
© 2013 Victoria Van Ness