There is something about fresh cranberries that is just so festive making them perfect for the holiday season. These White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies will be sure to put you in the holiday spirit! This no-chill dough comes together in about 5 minutes without needing a mixer, making these the best quick and easy cookie recipe all season long!
This recipe is great for cookie exchanges or cookie boxes, Christmas parties, or other festive gatherings, or even just to have on hand for the holiday season. Even Santa will love these! If you need more holiday cookie ideas, try French Toast Cookies and Chocolate Peppermint Cookies.
Why this Recipe Works
Cranberries are naturally very tart so combining them with the sweetness of white chocolate is the perfect balance of flavors. Because white chocolate is sweeter than milk or dark chocolate, it creates the best balance of flavors with the tart and delicious real cranberries.
Ingredients and Notes
Cranberries - This recipe uses real cranberries, not canned cranberry sauce. This gives the cookies bursts of cranberry goodness.
Cornstarch - Cornstarch gives the White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies a soft and chewy texture.
Substitutions
Cranberries - Frozen cranberries can be used in place of fresh, but cranberry sauce or jams will not work as a substitute.
White Chocolate Chips - White chocolate chips are very commonly available in most grocery stores, but in place of white chocolate chips, chopped white chocolate bars will work great too!
How to Make this Recipe
Step 1: In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Step 2: Stir in the eggs and vanilla.
Step 3: Mix in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt until just combined.
Step 4: Stir in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Step 5: Scoop dough balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet.
Step 6: Bake at 375°F for approximately 12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack and cool completely. Enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
The melted butter in this recipe contributes to a chewier cookie texture. Brown sugar also helps create a chewy cookie whereas white sugar will give you a crunchier cookie. This White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie recipe uses primarily brown sugar with just a bit of white sugar to create the perfect texture!
If a recipe calls for the dough to be chilled and you skip the chill time, you will likely end up with cookies that spread too much and come out flat. This White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie recipe is created so that you don't need to chill the dough and they'll still come out perfectly soft and chewy!
Eggs help hold all the ingredients together and help the cookies hold their shape. They also add moisture to the batter which helps make the cookies chewy. If you want to skip eggs, there are substitute ingredients to use in place of eggs, but I have not tested this recipe with any egg substitutes.
Tips & Tricks
Tip #1: Only stir in the flour mixture until it's just barely incorporated. Once flour is added to dough, the dough should be mixed as little as possible.
Tip #2: The dough will be stiff in order to prevent spreading without needing to chill the dough. Err on the side of using a bigger mixing bowl so that you have plenty of room for stirring without your ingredients flying out!
Tip #3: As soon as the White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies come out of the oven, use a round cookie cutter or the top of a cup or container with a round opening and run it in a circle around the outside of each cookie to create a perfectly round cookie.
Tip #4: For a bit more depth of flavor, consider using browned butter in place of melted butter. To brown butter, continue heating the butter beyond once it has melted until brown bits form at the bottom and the butter has a nutty smell. Keep a close eye on it to avoid burned butter!
Storage Tips
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 weeks.
Related Recipes
Did you try this recipe? Leave a review below, and tag @flourdeliz on Instagram!
📖 Recipe
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- silicone spatula
- Baking sheet
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter melted
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt Diamond Crystal
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
- 1 ½ cups cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F.
- Combine butter and sugars.
- Stir in eggs and vanilla.
- Add flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, and mix until combined.
- Stir in cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Form balls of dough, about 1 tablespoon, and place on the baking sheet.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, until slightly golden brown.
- Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, and then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe was originally posted on November 1, 2016, but was republished with an updated recipe, new photos, additional information about the recipe, step-by-step instructions, FAQs, and tips and tricks in January of 2024.
Megan Koller says
They are delightful! LOVE that it starts with melted butter - so great for last minute baking when all the butter is super cold.
Because we were out of ingredients, I didn't follow the recipe exactly (didn't have enough brown sugar, so just used mostly white sugar) but they still worked. And I used dark chocolate chunks instead of white. Loved having the dark chocolate in there, but should have chopped the pieces smaller. It was too hard to mix into the thick dough.
Went out and bought more cranberries to keep in the freezer so I can make this year round. Definitely a keeper!
Liz Pollio says
I love using melted butter in cookies because I'm too impatient to wait for it to come to room temperature! And dark chocolate sounds like a delicious substitution!! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! (and that we have matching cranberry freezer stashes!!)