Ne Plus Ultra Cookies

I finished! Yes, I really did! But now on to another topic...Has anybody been to the Minnesota State fair? Well I heard it's pretty cool. But that's not why I need your help. There's this Minnesota Wild Rice company in Minnesota (duh!) that had a contest for recipes containing wild rice. Did you know Minnesota is the world's first producer of cultivated wild rice? Pretty neat, huh.

I entered a recipe for a chicken (wild rice) stir fry, and I actually became a finalist! The entire month of September is voting time, so please vote! The prize is 250 dollars, and I could definitely use that .. maybe for some cooling racks or other things on my wish list?! So please, please please don't forget to vote. (And dare I say maybe for a stir fry?) Tell your friends, your family! It'd truly be amazing if I was able to win! Plus it would mean so much to me! (And you don't even need to put an email or anything! Just click the little button (maybe next to a stir fry) and hit vote! It's easy as that!)

So on to other matters (sorry does it feel like I'm jamming too much into this post?), does anybody know what "Ne Plus" means? Well I certainly don't, but when I see the word "ultra" next to the word "cookie", it just screams "make me! make me! you know I'm delicious!" So, I just had to make them

Lookit! It's a floating cookie!!!

I found the recipe in Martha Stewart's cookie book, and the little anecdote said some lady (I kinda forgot her name..sorry) keeps a ton of this dough on hand just for when people come over!

The dough spread out quite a bit, and all the little add ins (pecans, dried cranberries, chocolate) stuck out...and at kinda weird angles. The dough was pretty crunchy, but that's probably because the cookie part was only like 3 mm thick!

See! So thin!

Did I do something wrong? Cause whatever "ne plus" means, well, I don't think it's that good....and I'm definitely not gonna store some of this dough in my fridge.

Ne Plus Ultra Cookies
Adapted from: Martha Stewarts Cookie Book
Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs; mix until well combined. 

3. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl; add to butter mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and pecans.  

4. Roll dough into 2 1/2-inch balls, then flatten to 1-inch thick. Transfer to baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake cookies until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

do you see the wineglass??? it's a ghost!