Visiting day at my daughters camp means we visit then bring her home the following day.  My initial hotel reservation was lost, so I scrambled madly for a new place to stay which was not easy at all.  I must have called 25 inns, hotels, and motels…and miraculously found a room at The Greenwood Mountain Inn in Hebron Maine.  We didn’t know what to expect and heard that many B&B’s were hit or miss.  Rob and I followed our GPS guide – which took us to an old messy dirt road.  We passed through no tresspassing signs, boarded up houses, a rickety bridge, oh, and during this the car was covered in a weird awful swarm of insects that seemed like pirhanas the way they attached themselves to the car (seeming to smell our blood).  I’m not kidding.  Really.  As the road seemed to get even more treacherous –  we looked at each other in disbelief and fear.  (Almost felt like the beginning of a horror film.)  We decided to call the Inn and were told to turn around immediately.  At this point we were both tired from the 95 degree heat, the camp visit and the worrisome travel.  As we reached the top of the hill (on a lovely paved road) we saw the Greenwood Mountain Inn – and wow – it was a beautiful site – sitting atop a cornfield overlooking the hills of Maine – surrounded by wildflowers and a gazebo.  We looked at each other and grinned.  The best part was coming inside into the cool modern kitchen and eyeing several types of homemade cookies, a cake, and muffins – but my favorite of all were these cookies – these long winded named cookies that Daryel bakes for guests throughout  the year.  Our experience was great and Daryel and Rob were so warm, welcoming and kind and best of all…happy to share their recipe with me.  What a beautiful an amazing place to stay!  So very glad that our original hotel lost our reservation.  Enjoy-

daryel’s white chocolate, mac nut, coconut, tart cherry or cranberry cookies (adapted tiniest bit from Daryel Duhaime’s recipe that he serves at the Greenwood Mountain Inn in Hebron, Maine):

2 3/4 c flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks butter, room temp (Daryel uses half margarine, half butter)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (please, good quality), or chopped white chocolate
3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used dried tart cherries, dried blueberries a good idea too!)
3/4 – 1 cup crushed macadamia nuts (toasted first)
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Toast your macadamia nuts.  Place on foil or a sheet pan and bake for 5-7 minutes till fragrant and slightly golden.  Let cool and crush.  (Not sure Daryel toasts his – but doing this will bring out the flavor of the nut even more.)

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Now, Rob tells me Daryel does this all by hand – and I do think it makes for a nice dense cookie.  But I have a bum shoulder and continued vertigo – so sometimes ease is good for me.  So do what you want here.

By hand, you can mix the butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl.  Alternately, you can beat the butter and sugars with the paddle attachment – then add the vanilla and eggs and scrape and mix again.

Add the flour mixing by hand – you can do this with your hands (clean hands) and mix until just incorporated.  Or, on lowest speed of the mixer, add the dry ingredients and again, mix until just incorporated.  Scrape.

Remove from mixer and now – yes, by hand – mix in all the mix ins…the toasted nuts, the white chips (or chopped white chocolate – I did a little bit of both), the coconut and the cranberries or tart cherries.  I love cherries so I substituted them for cranberries. You could even use dried blueberries.

Daryel places the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.  Then rolls into balls and bakes for a bout 13 minutes (but check often and before).  Rob does not refrigerate the dough – he simply rests it on the counter and proceeds to bake.  I did put the dough in the frige and I used my ice cream scoop to scoop out nice round cookies.  Anything really goes here 🙂  Experiment.

As I said bake for about 12-14 minutes.  Rotate your pans, if you have a lot of pans in the oven, it may take longer.  Keep an eye out!  Do not over-bake.

Lastly, Daryel rolls remaining leftover dough into balls and freezes them for easy service on the fly.  I tend to make frozen logs of dough (as seen in the oatmeal cookie post – look at the bottom of the post for directions and photos) and then slice and bake as needed.  Again – both work.

You can let cookies cool on counter – and serve some happiness up!

Enjoy-

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