These Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies are the perfect combination of sweet and tart flavors. They are fantastic for the holidays and surprisingly easy to make!
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Pin RecipeIt’s cookie season! We all have our favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies, but this year you’ll want to add a new recipe to the list: these Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies!
The classic combination of cranberries and white chocolate is especially delicious in this Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe. White chocolate can be overly sweet but, when mixed with dried cranberries, it is just perfect! Tart berries really help bring out the flavor of the white chocolate and balance some of the intense sweetness.
I also have a few little tricks to make the cookie dough even more flavorful than any other cookies you have ever tried. For example, I use browned butter to make the dough, a step that takes just a minute longer, but gives these Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies a strong caramel taste.
(Be sure to try my waffle cookies too!)
Chewy Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe
These Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies only take about 10 minutes to put together. I love using this recipe when I need to make a quick dessert to bring to a holiday party or get together. One recipe makes about 30 small cookies, so there’s plenty to share!
I am definitely a chewy cookie kind of person, but if you like your cookies a little crispy, leave them in the oven for 2 more minutes. This will make the edges a deeper brown and give the white chocolate chunk cookies a nice crunch. (Do you like chewy cookies or crunchy cookies? I feel like the world is split down the middle!)
Items Needed
Ingredients
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions
- All-Purpose flour – Replace this with all-purpose gluten-free flour to make gluten-free Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
- Butter – I use unsalted butter when I bake.
- Baking soda
- Salt
- White sugar
- Brown sugar – Using white and brown sugar adds a complex flavor.
- Egg yolk – Save the egg white for another recipe or use it to make egg white omelets!
- Vanilla extract
- White chocolate chips – You can use white chocolate chips or white chocolate chunks. Both will work perfectly.
- Dried cranberries
- Lemon zest – Fresh grated lemon zest has the strongest flavor.
Quick Tip
The cookie dough for this recipe will be softer than other cookie doughs you may have made in the past. It is almost like a thick cake batter rather than a stiff cookie dough.
How to Make Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to 375ºF and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Make brown butter: Melt the butter in a small pan over medium-high heat. When it starts to turn a golden brown, remove the pan from the heat, then let the butter cool.
- Add the sugars: Add the brown butter, brown sugar, and white sugar to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer. Add the egg yolk and mix again. The mixture will look a little wet.
- Add the dry ingredients: Add the flour, lemon zest, vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda to the bowl and mix into a smooth batter.
- Add the mix-ins: Stir the white chocolate chips and cranberries into the batter. Refrigerate the dough to make it easier to scoop.
- Scoop and bake: Scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared parchment lined baking sheet and press down on the dough slightly to make each cookie flat. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes, or until the edges are starting to turn a golden brown color. Let the cookies cool and then enjoy!
Variations and Substitutions
Here are a few ways to make these Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies a little different:
- Use raisins in place of dried cranberries. Dried blueberries also go really well in this cookie recipe.
- Dark chocolate chips are delicious in place of white chocolate chips. Dark chocolate cranberry cookies are more intense and decadent.
- Skip the brown butter and use regular melted butter for the recipe to help speed things up.
- Skip the lemon zest to make the cookies taste a little sweeter.
How to Store White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
I like to place my cooled cookies in a large, gallon-sized zippered bag and keep them at room temperature. They will keep for about 4-5 days in an airtight container. However, my cookies always seem to disappear after just a day or two…
FAQs
Keep cookies moist by baking them only until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. The tops should still be light, but also a matte color (not wet looking). Baking the cookies to the perfect doneness will ensure they stay tender and soft.
Cookies that have fewer eggs tend to be a lighter color. The proteins in the eggs are what make cookies brown. Those proteins caramelize in the oven as the cookies bake. If the cookies are a pale color, they may just not have a lot of eggs, like this recipe.
Another reason cookies would be a light color is that they are not baked completely. Cookies get darker as they bake, so a very pale cookie may just need some more time in the oven. If the cookies are also super soft or wet looking, more baking time may be needed.
White chocolate doesn’t actually contain cocoa particles, which means it is not technically chocolate. It is made from cocoa butter mixed with sugar and vanilla flavoring. It may not be true chocolate, but it is still delicious!
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Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks
- ½ cup dried cranberries zest
- 1 lemon
Instructions
- Make the brown butter. You can skip this step and use softened butter to mix with sugars, but brown butter does give a creamier and caramel flavor to cookies. Melt butter in a small sauce pot or pan until it starts to become brown. Remove from the heat, let cool and pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Add sugars, blend with an electric mixer on medium and follow with egg yolk. Blend.
- Add flour, lemon zest, vanilla, salt, baking soda. Blend on low and finally stir in chocolate chunks and cranberries. Refrigerate the batter for 10 minutes.
- Scoop about 1 ½ – 2 tablespoon size of the dough into balls, place on a baking sheet, and press slightly to flatten. Arrange more chocolate chunks and cranberries on top and bake for 8 minutes at 375ºF.
- You will need to scoop and bake in batches, refrigerating the dough in between the baking.
