Skip to main content

Cranberry Walnut Cookies

"These are my favorite (non-chocolate) cookies. They are soft, chewy, and delicious. My family has been making them for the holidays for years. I have no idea where the recipe came from, but I'm glad I have it!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,147 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

24 cookies
Prep30 min
Cook10 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Beat the softened butter, white sugar and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Beat in the egg, milk and orange juice until smooth.

  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.

  5. Stir the dry mixture into the butter mixture until just combined. Fold in the halved cranberries and chopped walnuts.

  6. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared sheets.

  7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden and the cookies are set. Cool on the sheets for 2 minutes, then move to a rack.

  8. Once completely cool, dust the cookies lightly with confectioners' sugar.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,647 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, cinnamon, walnut):

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, cinnamon, walnut. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).