These White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies are so delicious and festive. Soft and chewy cranberry cookies studded with white chocolate chips and orange zest, create the perfect balance of sweetness from the white chocolate and the tartness of cranberry.
These soft-baked cookies will be a favorite on your Christmas cookie platter this year. Arrange them with your Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Cookies, and your holiday treats will steal the spotlight at any cookie swap or party you have planned.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
I love serving festive cookies, whether at home, at a friendly cookie swap, or as a gift for a neighbor or friend. While I certainly appreciate the artistry of decorated cookies, I am also thankful when the ingredients themselves naturally elevate the flavor and presentation. If you love easy cookies like the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies, this recipe is for you. These easy-to-make cookies are delicious and effortlessly beautiful with bright red cranberries and snow-white chocolate chips poking through.
You can use fresh or dried cranberries in this recipe, though fresh cranberries are preferred for a softer and brighter cookie (see the comparison below). Fresh cranberries will also need to bake for a couple of minutes longer since they hold a bit more moisture.
Here’s why you will love these Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies:
- Easy to make – This recipe makes 3 dozen cookies, which might sound like a lot, but they’re so sweet, comforting, and giftable so they’ll be gone in no time.
- Festive – The red and white contrast of cranberries and white chocolate morsels will enhance your holiday cookie trays but are fantastic year-round.
- Make ahead – The dough can be made ahead of time and the baked cookies are freezer-friendly.
- Customizable – Want chocolate? Add chocolate chips. Like a crunch? Add nuts. See other variations below. You can also use fresh or dried cranberries.
Ingredients
This cookie recipe requires very little prep. Good-looking cookies do not have to be hard to make. Grab your measuring cups and mixer, because this recipe is nothing more than scoop, measure, pour, and mix.
- Butter – unsalted and softened and room temperature
- Sugar – for sweetness and to help get those perfectly crisp edges
- Brown Sugar – helps to give a chewy texture and richer color
- Flour – all-purpose, or replace with your favorite GF flour. Be sure to measure flour correctly.
- Orange Zest – adds a fresh citrus zing. It’s an easy to way to add great flavor.
- Vanilla – I use my homemade pure Vanilla Extract (These make great holiday gifts too!)
- Egg – should be large and room temperature
- Baking Powder – helps your cookies rise, we don’t want flat cookies on our cookie tray
- Salt – to balance the sweetness
- White Chocolate Chips – I love when these melt giving you little pockets of delicious white chocolate in every bite.
- Cranberries – fresh, coarsely chopped, or substitute with dried cranberries if necessary. If you soak your cranberries in hot water for 15-20 minutes, you’ll get softer cookies.
Substitutions
These cranberry cookies can be made to your flavor preferences- add chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts, semi-sweet chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, lemon zest, or even a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg.
Pro Tip:
Dried cranberries bake 1-3 minutes faster than fresh cranberries (which have more moisture), so be sure to watch your cookies in the oven to prevent them from overcooking. Watch for the edges to turn golden brown and you’ll know they’re done to perfection.
How to Make Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
- Prepare – Preheat the oven to 350°F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Wet Ingredients – Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, in a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and beat well to incorporate. Beat in the zest and vanilla extract. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed to ensure everything is mixed in.
- Dry Ingredients – In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and beat just until combined and the cookie dough comes together.
- Fold – Using a stiff spatula, fold in the chopped cranberries and white chocolate chips. Don’t overmix, you don’t want to smoosh the cranberries.
- Shape and Bake – Shape into 1-inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on your prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown at the edges (Cookies with dried cranberries will bake faster, about 11-13 minutes).
- Cool – Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Pro Tip:
Use a small trigger-release cookie scoop to get evenly-sized cookie dough balls every time.
Make-Ahead
To store cookies: transfer to an airtight container and keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. Cookies can also be frozen or refrigerated for longer storage.
Make-ahead: If you are not baking right away, wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 72 hours. To bake, remove from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature until the dough softens enough to scoop.
To freeze cookie dough: Place cookie dough balls onto a baking sheet, cover, and freeze for an hour or until solid. Once they are frozen, transfer them to a large Ziploc bag and freeze up to 3 months.
To bake frozen cookie dough: Place the frozen cookie dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and thaw in the refrigerator for 3 hours before baking per the recipe instructions.
Sending you the merriest wishes on your Christmas baking journey. May your oven be precise, your ingredients be plenty, and each cookie be a sweet reflection of the joy and warmth of the season.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
If you love these Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies, then you’ll want to try these other tried and true Christmas cookies. Try one, or try them all and have the most beautiful holiday spread.
- Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Chocolate Truffles
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Almond Snowball Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (12 Tbsp or 1.5 sticks)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 tsp grated orange zest
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, or use your favorite GF flour, measured correctly
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3/4 cups white chocolate chips
- 2 cups fresh cranberries (8 oz. bag), coarsely chopped, or substitute 1 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter and both sugars for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well to incorporate. Beat in the zest and vanilla extract.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter mixture and beat just until combined and dough comes together.
- Using a stiff spatula, stir in the cranberries and chocolate chips just until incorporated. Shape into 1-inch balls (a small cookie scoop makes it easy) and place 2 inches apart on your prepared baking sheet.
- Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown at the edges (Cookies with dried cranberries will bake faster, about 11-13 minutes).
- Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Yep, these are great! I baked for about 19 minutes. Chopping the cranberries is a bit interesting! 😀
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love these cookies. This recipe I’ll make again. I used a food processor to chop the cranberries instead of a knife. I had cranberries bouncing to the floor at first.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Carol!
Just finished baking the cranberry white chocolate cookies.
I did add about 1/2 Cwalnuts and a dash of nutmeg. Used dry chopped cranberries. Absolutely delicious.
Thank you for sharing, Chris!
These cookies are delicious. I was looking for a drop cookie that looks festive to add to my holiday baking. These are a keeper!
They are perfect for the holidays! I hope it becomes a huge hit with your family and friends.
Did you use 8 0z cranberries it say 2 cups but I thought a cup was 8 Oz
Hi Linda! The 8oz label on the bag refers to the weight of the cranberries not volume size. We used 2 cups measured out in volume or it’s 8oz by weight. I hope you love the cookies!
Dear Natasha,
We are waiting for you to publish a cookbook of Ukrainian and Russian recipes…. We were not passed down any recipes from our deceased relatives since they never measured any ingredients!!!
Thanks for your suggestion, Irene.
Delicious – my son says they must become a Christmas staple!
I’m so glad to hear that!
Absolutely wonderful, I rehydrated the cranberries in hot water and orange extract. And when measuring out the white sugar, I added the orange zest and mixed with my fingers allowing the oil from the zest to infuse the sugar. I will try with fresh next time but I wanted to freeze these for christmas cookie boxes. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe
You’re welcome, Cindy! So glad you enjoyed the cookies.
A new holiday favorite in my household. I used good quality dried cranberries. The cookie was buttery and rich in flavor. The outside was slightly crisp like a shortbread with a lovely moist center. I am going to try this recipe with dried cherries, semisweet chocolate and grated lemon rind.
Sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing.
Do I need to rehydrate dried cranberries if I use them?
Thank you!
Hi Jamie, yes you can rehydrate them before you use them. I have a pro tip on using dried cranberries in this post. I hope this helps.
Hi Natasha! I made a batch of these cookies last week and they were everybody’s new favorite. Around the holidays I sell food gift baskets and wanted to put these in there. But they are too moist with the Fresh cranberries. Can I use dried cranberries without soaking them in water? If so, What portion would I use?
Thank you in advance. And I love all your recipes. And you are my go to person for the best food😊
Hi Cindi! That would be fine. They are not as moist without soaking the cranberries but still great. You can follow the same quantities, just watch them in the oven, they will bake faster.
I loved this recipe, however I found they didn’t keep well in my cookie tin – I should have kept them in the fridge, I think. However They are DElicious and I will make again!
Will keep better with dried unsoaked cranberries. the cranberries are like raisins. WE generally do not soak raisins before putting in cookies. Another great addition to this recipe is a grating of orange zest!
These cookies are delicious but for some reason they took almost twice as long to cook! I had them in for 15 extra minutes just to look golden brown in an oven that usually cooks hot. Any ideas on why? The only substitutions I made were dark chocolate for white chocolate, and I subbed orange juice for zest.
Hi Drew. My thought is that the oven may not have been fully preheated before hand. This recipe is written for a conventional oven on regular bake mode. I encourage the use of an Internal oven thermometer (Amazon affiliate link) to see if you oven is heating correctly. Wait for the thermometer to register the appropriate temperature before you start to bake.
Also- the type of cookie sheet/pan can affect how they bake as well. Certain materials distribute heat differently. I hope that helps for next time.
The comment mentions a substitution of orange juice for zest. I think the extra moisture is the culprit.
Hi Natasha! I just looked over your cranberry white chocolate cookie recipe. Excited to try it out. Have you used almond flour in this recipe before?
Hi Yolanda! I have not tested that substitution.
Didn’t think these would taste good, even though they looked good, but gave them a try. And boy, they are delicious. The sweet and tartness of the ingredients work well together and because my husband likes these(and he’s picky when it comes to food), this recipe is a keeper. Actually making more batches of these to give out as gifts. Highly recommend!
Hi Laurie! Thanks so much for trying the recipe! I’m so glad you ended up enjoying it!
I made these cookies this past week and I shared them with colleagues at a meeting. They loved them and asked for the recipe. I loved the contrast of the tart cranberries and the sweet white chocolate. It’s a keeper recipe!
That’s wonderful, Laura!
EXCELLENT!!!! I made these today and I can’t stop eating them. The orange, cranberry, and vanilla flavors are so wonderful together and these recipe is very easy to follow. These are going in gift baskets for sure!!!! Thank you.
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Andrea!
I’m trying to make those cookies but I have only frozen cranberries, will that work?
Hi Olga, I have not tried this with frozen cranberries. I assume it could work, but I would thaw and strain them well.
What makes my cookies hard, after they have cooled. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of cookies I make, after they cool they are hard.
Hi Bonnie! It really depends on the recipe and the type of cookie. It could several reasons- baking too long, oven temperature too high, using too much flour, etc.
I don’t what went wrong. I followed the directions, but when I checked the cookies to see if the edges were brown, they were almost still ball shaped. I flattened them a little bit and let them cook a few more minutes. They tasted good. I’m just not sure if this has happened to anyone else.
Hi Kim. That can happen if you use too much flour. I have a tutorial on How to measure ingredients here. I hope that helps.
I am enjoying your recipes. You are a great cook with great taste. I just made the cranberry and white chocolate cookies. They are so good. Can’t tell you how many of your recipes I have and love and I am a picky vegetarian. I do use fish so that helps.
I’m so glad you’re loving the recipe, Faye! Thank you.
These are incredible! Turned out perfect and my house never smelled this good. Definitely a keeper!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Geraldine!