Cranberries and white chocolate are one of my favorite holiday flavor combos! These cranberry white chocolate cookies are filled with fresh cranberries for bursts of tang balanced by the sweetness of white chocolate! They're soft, chewy and full of flavor for a fun, wintery Christmas cookie!
You might also like these white chocolate macadamia cookies or these cranberry muffins!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few ingredients to make these cranberry white chocolate chip cookies!
Fresh Cranberries - You need fresh cranberries for these cookies! They add bright pops of tangy flavor that pairs beautifully with the white chocolate. If you can't find fresh cranberries, dried cranberries will work okay but I highly recommend fresh for the best flavor! I've adjusted the recipe to account for fresh cranberries, so if you use dried you'll need to reduce the flour by ¼ cup.
Almond Extract - I just love the way the flavor of almond extract compliments the cranberries but you can leave it out if you want.
White Chocolate - You can use either a chopped white chocolate baking bar or white chocolate chips! I love Ghirardelli white chocolate baking chips!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Cranberry Cookies
First prep the cranberries. I like to leave all the small ones whole and cut the larger ones in half for a combination of textures.
Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat for 2-4 minutes or until the texture is light and fluffy (it should look much paler than before).
Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
Using a spoon or spatula, gently stir in the white chocolate chunks and fresh cranberries until fully mixed in.
Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. I use a size 20 cookie scoop. If desired, press extra cranberries and white chocolate chunks into the tops of the dough balls.
Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
To bake, place 2-3 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Note: I only bake 5-6 cookies at a time on a half sheet pan because they're big and will spread out.
Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft.
Remove from the oven and let the cranberry white chocolate cookies rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Tips for Perfect Cookies
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Cookie Baking Tools
Recipe FAQ's
Store the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week!
Chilling the dough allows the flour to hydrate a bit and ensures the butter is super cold. This keeps your cranberry cookies from spreading too much and completely flattening out so that the centers stay chewy.
No!! Frozen cranberries will add too much moisture to the cookies. If you don't want to use fresh cranberries, dried cranberries are the best substitute but you'll want to reduce the flour by ¼ cup.
The reason cookies spread too much either has to do with the dough not being chilled long enough, or improper oven temperature. Make sure the cookie dough is cold before baking and use an oven thermometer to make sure the oven is exactly 350°F.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Cranberry Recipes!
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Recipe Card
Fresh Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, or chunks
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
Instructions
- First prep the cranberries. I like to leave all the small ones whole and cut the larger ones in half for a combination of textures.
- Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat for 2-4 minutes or until the texture is light and fluffy (it should look much paler than before).
- Add in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
- Using a spoon or spatula, gently stir in the white chocolate chunks and fresh cranberries until fully mixed in.
- Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. I use a size 20 cookie scoop. If desired, press extra cranberries and white chocolate chunks into the tops of the dough balls.
- Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To bake, place 2-3 inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Note: I only bake 5-6 cookies at a time on a half sheet pan because they're big and will spread out.
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft.
- Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Sarah says
Can these be frozen before baking?
Kyleigh Sage says
Technically yes! The dough itself freezes great (just add a couple minutes to the bake time). But after being frozen the cranberries will release more water when baked. So it does impact the flavor and texture slightly. They should still turn out okay, but they won't be exactly the same.
Gretchen D. says
I love how beautiful these cookies are. The flavor is wonderful with the bits of sweet white chocolate and the tart cranberries. I brought the cookies (the ones I didn't eat) to a friend over the holidays. I have never seen a plate of cookies disappear so quickly!
Aude says
This is an excellent recipe- but I double the cranberries. Even then, I felt it wasn't that much. Using fresh, local farm-grown. Like tartness.