Chewy Cranberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
This cranberry and white chocolate oatmeal cookies recipe is a holiday version of the classic oatmeal raisin cookie. They taste delicious and are so easy to make. Perfect for a Christmas cookie swap or as a holiday treat.
Made with dried cranberries and white chocolate chips, these chewy oatmeal cookies are one of the recipes that are always on my Christmas cookie list.
They’re soft and chewy and taste delicious.
All of the oatmeal cookie lovers in your family will absolutely love them!
Ingredients
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This makes about 36 cookies.
Here is your shopping list:
- Dairy: ⅔ cup butter, 2 Tablespoons milk
- Sugar: 1 cup brown sugar – this helps to make the cookies soft and chewy
- Eggs: 1 large
- Flavoring: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Grains: 1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
- Baking supplies: 1 cup flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder
- Seasoning: ¼ teaspoon salt
- Additions: 1 cup dried cranberries, 1 cup white chocolate chips or chop 6 ounces of white chocolate squares into small pieces
Substitutions
- To make the cookies gluten-free, substitute measure-for-measure gluten-free flour instead of regular flour. (I like King Arthur’s).
- If you prefer, you can use dried cherries, raisins or chopped dried apricots instead of cranberries.
How To Make Cranberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
The prep work
Take the butter, egg and milk out of the refrigerator a couple of hours ahead of time to bring them to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 375℉.
Chop 1 cup of dried cranberries.
I like to line the cookie sheets with parchment paper. It prevents the bottom of the cookies from burning and keeps them from spreading too much.
But you could also grease the cookie sheets with shortening, or spray it with cooking spray.
The butter mixture
With an electric mixer and a large bowl, beat 2/3 cup of butter.
When the butter is soft and light in color, add 1 cup packed brown sugar gradually.
Keep beating until the butter/sugar mixture is fluffy.
Add the wet ingredients (2 Tablespoons milk, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla).
Beat on high speed until well combined.
The oatmeal mixture
In another bowl, whisk 1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats, 1 cup flour, ½ teaspoon each of baking soda and baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
When measuring dry ingredients, use a dry measure cup of the appropriate size.
Spoon the flour into the cup until heaping, then scrape straight across the top with the edge of a knife so that the excess falls back into its container.
Dipping the measuring cup into the flour rather than spooning the flour in causes the flour to get compacted and can make the cookies to be too dense.
Stir to make sure all ingredients are well blended.
I like to put the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a sifter and sift it over the rolled oats. This gets a more even distribution of the leavening agents..
Combine the butter mixture and flour mixture
Add the oat mixture to the butter mixture
Then beat on low speed with the mixer until combined.
Add the cranberries and white chocolate
Add 1 cup chopped cranberries and 1 cup of chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips.
Stir by hand until combined.
Bake the cookies
Use a dessert spoon to scoop the dough from the bowl and drop it about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
If you want the white chocolate chips and cranberries to be more obvious after the cookies are baked, place a few on top of each cookie. Put the white chocolate chips with the point facing down. Otherwise, they tend to burn in the oven.
Place the baking sheet on the center rack in the oven and bake the cookies at 375℉ for 9 to 10 minutes. They should be light brown in color.
Remove from the oven and let sit for 2 to 3 minutes on the baking sheet.
In the picture above, you can see the difference between the cookies the way they normally look, and how they look with the extra white chocolate chips and cranberries on the top.
Then transfer each cookie to a wire cooling rack using a spatula.
How to store cookies
When the cookies are thoroughly cool, store them in an airtight container for 1 week or in the freezer for up to a month.
Put a sheet of waxed paper between each layer of cookies to prevent them from sticking together during storage.
Other Christmas cookies you might like
- Lemon cream cheese Christmas cookies
- Slice and bake peppermint cookies
- Chocolate peppermint fudge balls
- Snowflake sugar cookies
- Old fashioned cherry winks cookies
More Christmas cookie recipes –>
Cranberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- parchment paper
- Cookie sheets
- mixer and mixing bowl
- medium bowl
- Dessert spoon
- Spatula
- cooling rack(s)
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup butter softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ cups quick-cooking rolled oats
- 1 cup all-purpose or measure-for-measure gluten free flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 375°F.
- Chop the cranberries and set aside.
- In the mixing bowl, beat the butter on high speed until light and fluffy.
- Then add the brown sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.
- Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, stir together rolled oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture into butter mixture and blend well with the electric mixer on low speed.
- Stir in chopped cranberries and white chocolate bits with a spoon.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop a heaping dessert spoonful of the batter onto the cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
- Bake in the center of the oven until golden brown, 9 to 10 minutes.
- Let cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes.
- Use a spatula to transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.
Notes
- Substitute dried cherries, raisins or chopped dried apricots for the cranberries if preferred
- Measure-for-measure gluten free flour works just as well as regular all-purpose flour
- Instead of parchment paper, you can also grease the cookie sheet with butter or shortening.
- Store in airtight container for 1 week or freeze for up to a month. Put waxed paper between layers of cookies to keep them separate during storage.
Nutrition
Nutrition values are estimates only, using online calculators. Please verify using your own data.
Other Christmas sweet treats you might like
Before you go…
This is also day 11 of our 2020 Festive Christmas Ideas blog hop where we team up with a bunch of talented blogging friends to bring you a plethora of creative ways to celebrate your holiday season .
Which means if you scroll down, you’ll find lots of other Christmas baking recipes you might like.
Have comments or questions about our cranberry and white chocolate oatmeal cookies? Tell us in the section below.
This post was originally published on November 16, 2020 but was updated with new content on February 20, 2023.