Buttery White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies perfect for the holidays. These golden cookies are packed with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries and fresh orange zest for extra flavour.
The perfect holiday cookie ❤️
Sweet, buttery White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies filled to the brim with all the good things in life. Boasting crispy edges and chewy centres, these homemade cookies are one of my new favourite things.
If you’re looking for a new recipe to try these holidays, you can’t go past these Christmas cookies.
I’ve been wanting to share this recipe with you for a whole YEAR. Last Christmas, I was obsessed with combining dried cranberries, white chocolate and orange zest in my baked goods.
I took those magical flavours and combined them to make one epic cookie. These buttery White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies need to go on your holiday baking list asap. They’re soft, chewy and deliciously zesty.
So I’ve already shared with you my fave White Chocolate Cookies. So what’s different about these? Well there’s plenty of dried cranberries for extra flavour. They’re sweet and tart and they add a lovely extra chew.
And then to bump up the flavour, we also added the zest of an orange. White chocolate, cranberries and orange IN buttery cookie dough? Magical. The oils from the zest permeate the entire batch of cookies and give them an extra special holiday feel 🎄
You don’t need to chill the dough, so these White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies are ready in a jiffy. And you can easily double the recipe or even freeze the dough if you need to match a batch ahead of time.
So if they taste amazing and are easy to make, what are we waiting for? Let’s get baking 👇🏻
TIPS FOR PERFECT WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY COOKIES
- You will need an electric mixer for this recipe.
- Start with room temperature butter. It shouldn’t be too soft or wet, but not fridge col either. This will make it easier to blend with the sugar.
- This recipe calls for both caster sugar and brown sugar. The caster sugar helps to add sweetness and crispy edges, while the brown sugar lends itself to a more caramel-like flavour and extra chewiness. You can use granulated sugar instead of caster sugar. Read more about caster sugar here.
- A little extra vanilla extract is added for flavour and an egg to bind.
- Once you add the plain flour (or all purpose flour) and baking soda and salt, you will then need to zest one fresh orange. You can leave the orange zest out if you prefer (but I love it).
- Then it’s time to mix in white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
- Scoop out the cookies and roll them using your hands to make them smooth. This will help them be as round as possible when they spread out while baking,
- The cookies are then baked in a moderate oven until golden brown on the edges.
MORE COOKIE RECIPES TO TRY:
- Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Oreo Cookies
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more amazing recipe ideas.
Let’s Bake
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Buttery White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies.
Ingredients
- 115 grams (1 stick or 1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 90 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar
- 50 grams (1/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 210 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 1 orange
- 150 grams (1 cup) white chocolate chips, plus extra for decorating
- 55 grams (1/2 cup) dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugars and beat using an electric beater for a minute or two until smooth and creamy.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined, scraping down the sides. Add flour, baking soda, salt and orange zest and beat again until a soft cookie dough forms.
- Add chocolate chips and dried cranberries and beat briefly until combined. Spoon approximately 1.5 tablespoons of cookie dough into small balls and roll until smooth using your hands.
- Place on the baking trays, leaving room for the cookies to flatten out. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
- Decorate warm cookies with extra chocolate chips. Leave cookies to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Desiré says
Made these tonight for the first time. Absolutely delicious and keeps people coming back for more!! Highly recommend it!
★★★★★
Jessica Holmes says
Love hearing that! So glad you enjoyed them Desire.
Bela says
These have quickly become my absolute favorite cookies, so I’ve been making them at least once a week for the past few months! The orange zest adds such a special kick, I love it. I top the cookies with some flaky salt right after I take them out of the oven though, I think that takes them to an even higher level. Thank you so, so, so much for sharing this recipe!
★★★★★
Jessica Holmes says
Love hearing that Bela! A dash of sea salt sounds amazing!
Sandra says
I felt these would be great and they were! Tweaks: I added more butter and 2tbsps of lard(adds crispness). Also reduced the brown sugar to a quarter cup. Will reduce white choc chips next time, as seemed excessive to me. Added tbsp juice from orange, and needed to slightly increase flour. I Canada castor sugar is called “fruit powdered berry sugar” and I love the crispness it imparts.
★★★★★
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you liked them Sandra!
Alida Murray says
Must you keep the soft chocolate cookies stored in the fridge??
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, I store my cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Preetika says
Hi made these and tasted really nice! Just wanted to ask what difference does it make to roll out the dough from hand and smoothing it vs scooping it from a ice cream scooper..asking because your cookie recipes ask to do one in some recipes in another and using the hand in another
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Preetika, glad you enjoyed the cookies! And it really doesn’t matter – whatever method you prefer for scooping and rolling is fine!
Preetika says
But is it true that rolling with hands results in flatter looking cookies whereas from scoop they turn out chunkier ?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, not necessarily, it will just depends on the individual recipe and the height of the cookie dough balls.
Joshua says
I really liked these cookies. They were so buttery and soft!
★★★★★
Jessica Holmes says
I’m so glad you liked them Josh!
Karen says
Hello, have not tried this recipe yet , just wondering why so many cookie recipes are now saying to bake at 360 degrees? Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Karen, this is the temperature I use, but it’s really up to you and your oven what you bake your cookies at.