Pistachio, cranberry and white chocolate cookies

I was looking to use up some bits and pieces I had left over from a couple of other recipes and as it was my turn to buy the biscuits for the Publishing team corner, I decided to make some. I also made some for Project A and Cat botherer minus the nuts. So here it is, with a slight apology to Rachel Allen for using her original cookie recipe from 'Bake' for inspiration. The basics are hers, the adornments are mine.

Ingredients

225g soft unsalted butter
110g caster sugar
275g plain flour
50g dried cranberries
50g unsalted pistachios broken up (OH smashed them up a bit with pestle and mortar)
50g white chocolate drops

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees centigrade (or 150ish if you have a fan oven like mine!)

2. Cream the butter and sugar together (you can use a food mixer or electric whisk but I think if you are making something like this you have to use wooden-spoon power in preparation for the calories you'll later consume!).

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, start by mixing with a spoon and then get your hands in to bring it together to a large ball of well mixed, firm-ish  dough.

4. Break small pieces off and roll to around the size of a walnut. Put the walnut-sized balls of dough onto a couple of baking trays (the joy of using so much butter is you won't have to grease them - result!).

5. The redoubtable Ms Allen says this makes around 35 cookies - I got around 24 - maybe my idea of a walnut is bigger than hers.

6. Once you have all the little balls of dough on the trays, flatten them down a little with the back of a damp fork.

7. Bake for around 15 minutes, although my fan oven is a little over-excitable and I checked after 10, then gave it a couple of minutes more.

8. Remove from the oven and put the cookies (carefully) on a cooling rack to crisp up.

9. Sit back and admire your efforts with a glass of wine (and a cookie!).