Baked Goods..."Cranberry and Pecan Coins"

I have a passion for baking. For me, not only do I end up with some delicious treats, but its completely therapeutic to dive in and create something new.
I recently decided to make some butter cookies with a mix of fruits and nuts. I gave some away around the holiday time as gifts, but my family loved them so much that I made some more over the weekend.
Yummy, decadent and easy to make...it's one of my new favorite cookies.

Here's the recipe...



Recipe from: Martha Stewart's Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Directions

1. Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add flour and salt; stir just until combined. Stir in dried cranberries. Divide dough into quarters.
2. On parchment, shape each portion into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 4 inches long. Wrap logs tightly in parchment or plastic. Chill 30 minutes or up to 1 day. (Dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic and frozen up to 1 month.)
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. With a sharp knife, slice dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Rotate log as you cut to keep it from flattening. Place rounds on parchment-lined baking sheets, 1 inch apart.
4. Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges just begin to turn golden, 20 to 22 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

I doubled up the recipe and split the dough in two. To make my own twist on the recipe, I added chopped dried cranberries to one dough and chopped pecans in the other.

Cutting into quarters, I rolled each section into a log and secured each in parchment paper for shape and hold:

After chilling in the fridge for an hour or so, I can to unravel perfectly shaped logs and cut them into 1/4 inch rounds and placed them evenly on a baking sheet an inch apart:

After 22 minutes, perfect coins appear!

Try it for yourself...you'll love them!