Originally published in 2012, this popular recipe stands the test of time. You’ll love these white chocolate chip cranberry cookies because they’re soft-baked, wonderfully chewy, have extra vanilla, plus they combine sweet white chocolate morsels with tart dried cranberries. It’s a flavorful and classic pairing for holiday cookie trays or anytime throughout the year!
I’ve made these white chocolate cranberry cookies countless times over the past several years and decided to add them to my annual holiday cookie lineup called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. They’re festive, a fan-favorite, and there’s hardly ever a crumb leftover. There are a few tricks to this cookie magic, so let me share some tips I’ve added over the years (including reducing the dough chill time from 2 hours to 1 hour). It’s a great cookie recipe to have in your back pocket… right next to your recipes for chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies!
In Short, These White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies Are:
- adapted from these soft chocolate chip cookies
- soft-baked with slightly crisp edges
- brown sugared with extra vanilla
- thick & chewy
- easy to make
- brimming with creamy white chocolate chips & tart dried cranberries
Plus, the cookie dough freezes easily and the baked cookies freeze and thaw without issue. If you ever want to learn more about my process for freezing cookies and cookie dough, here is my How to Freeze Cookie Dough page.
Start With a Tested Cookie Dough
As I mentioned above, this recipe uses this soft chocolate chip cookies recipe as the base. It’s unfussy and welcomes a variety of add-ins and flavors. Honestly, I make this version more often because the add-ins are a little more special. You could also replace the white chocolate chips with regular chocolate chips for a chocolate/cranberry combo (or even use dark chocolate like we do for dark chocolate cranberry blondies—yum!). Or go a little wild and make my other variations using this dough: butterscotch pretzel chocolate chip cookies & salted caramel pecan chocolate chip cookies.
Key Ingredients in White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Room Temperature Butter: If you’re looking for an extra buttery, almost dense chocolate chip cookie, try my chocolate chip cookies. That recipe starts with melted butter. For today’s version and the original soft chocolate chip cookies, I start with room temperature butter. Creaming the butter with sugars provides a fluffy and aerated base. The creaming process is only possible if the butter is softened to room temperature. Keep in mind that softened butter is cool to the touch, not greasy. (See Room Temperature Butter if you’re interested in learning more.)
- More Brown Sugar Than White Sugar: Did you know that sugar does more than just sweeten cookies? Brown sugar can give cookies a chewier, softer, and more moist texture, while regular white granulated sugar helps the cookies spread. For chewier and more flavorful cookies, use more brown sugar than white sugar. And, if you have it, use dark brown sugar for deeper brown sugar flavor.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: For optimal flavor, reach for pure vanilla instead of imitation. Even better, try homemade vanilla extract!
- Cornstarch: It seems like an odd ingredient for cookie dough, doesn’t it? Just as it makes shortbread cookies extra tender, a small amount can actually provide added softness to other cookie doughs, too. We don’t want to replace any flour with it because the cookies could lose shape, so just add 2 teaspoons. Cornstarch also helps keep the cookies thick.
- Dried Cranberries & White Chocolate Chips: Add 1 cup of dried cranberries and 3/4 cup white chocolate morsels. I used to make these cookies with 3/4 cup of each but lately I add extra cranberries for more chunks in each bite. Use dried cranberries instead of fresh because when baked, fresh throws off the dry/wet ratio. I usually use the brand Craisins.
Success Tip: Chill The Dough
The ingredients come together quickly and easily, but allow 1 hour for the dough to chill in the refrigerator before baking. The refrigerator is a cookie dough’s best friend because it helps firm up soft cookie doughs (like today’s) which prevents the cookies from over-spreading. Chilling also gives the flavors in the dough a chance to settle and mingle together. I used to chill this dough for at least 2 hours, but 1 hour is plenty and still allows for a decent spread.
Success Tip: Use a Cookie Scoop & Your Hands
I always use this medium cookie scoop for the cookie dough. Each cookie should be around 1.5 Tablespoons of dough, so that size is perfect. After scooping, I briefly roll the dough in my hands. You don’t need to make a perfectly smooth and round ball—in fact, I like keeping the dough balls taller rather than wide as pictured next. Shaping this way helps achieve a thicker, textured-looking cookie.
And, if desired, press a few more white chips & dried cranberries into the baked cookies while they’re still warm. Accessorizing with extras makes a pretty cookie, don’t you think?!
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Coconut Macaroons
- Peanut Butter Blossoms
- Christmas Sugar Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Gingerbread Cookies
- Pinwheel Cookies
and here are my top 10 cookie baking tools if you’re looking for recommendations!
Soft-Baked White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You’ll love these white chocolate chip cranberry cookies because they’re soft-baked, wonderfully chewy, have extra vanilla, plus they combine sweet white chocolate morsels with tart dried cranberries. Set aside 1 hour to chill the dough in the refrigerator before baking.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar (I use dark)
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (cornflour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (135g) white chocolate chips, plus a few extra for garnish
- 1 cup (140g) dried cranberries, plus a few extra for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together. On low speed, slowly mix into the wet ingredients until combined. The cookie dough will be soft and thick. Add the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries and beat on low speed until combined. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 3-4 days. Chilling is imperative to prevent the cookies from over-spreading.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3-4 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes. This makes the firm cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- As the oven preheats, scoop and roll dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each, into balls. The dough may be slightly crumbly, but will come together as you work it with your hands. Arrange dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. The centers will still look soft. If cookies didn’t spread much, lightly bang the the baking sheets on the counter a couple times while the cookies are still warm. They’ll stretch and deflate.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. During this time, press extra white chocolate chips and dried cranberries into the warm tops. This is optional and only for looks. After 5 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 3. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: A small amount of cornstarch provides added softness to the dough and cookies. Cornstarch also helps keep the cookies thick. If you don’t have any, you can leave it out—no need to replace with anything.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Oh. My. Gosh!!! I don’t like white chocolate, and I LOVE these! Added orange zest, but that’s the only change I made. Followed the recipe exactly (except that whole orange zest part). They taste like Christmas!!
Hello! I double the recipe and the batter looks a bit floury and not like normal cookie batter. Will chilling it fix this? Of do in need to add more of an ingredient?
Hi Jess! Chilling will not fix a flour-y dough. It is easy to mis-measure when multiplying recipes, perhaps that’s what happened? Also, How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post. You can try adding a small amount of milk to the dough to make it bring it together, but it’s hard to say how they will turn out!
can i use fresh cranberries in this recipe?
Hi Tina, we don’t recommend it. You can try chopping and adding them, but it will throw off the wet/dry ingredient ratio.
I just knew these would be delicious and I was right. They are also beautiful. The only thing I did differently was to scoop them before I chilled them. It made it much easier when it was time to bake them.
Delicious cookies, I’ve already made them a few times! I follow the instructions and didn’t do anything different. But I do have a question, have you ever thought about a drizzle of white chocolate or milk chocolate on the cookie? Thanks for the recipe.!
Hi MP, a drizzle of white chocolate or milk chocolate would be fantastic here! We’re so glad you enjoyed the cookies.
The worst cookie recipe I have ever made!!!
Hi Leah, can you expand on that? My team and I would love to help troubleshoot, or find out why you didn’t enjoy them. Thanks for any feedback!
I am baking these tomorrow for our homeschool group. Made chocolate chip cookies numerous times and they are always a huge hit. Make sure to try Sally’s cakes and cupcakes!!
The first time I made these exactly as printed. Brought them to a gathering of friends and they all LOVED them. I actually thought they were a bit bland. HOWEVER, this time,. I added some orange zest (about a TBSP) and they are heavenly – that really took them over the top and the house smelled amazing when they were cooking. Thank you so much Sally – your recipes are always spot on and your tips are very helpful. Wishing you a very happy holiday season!
When did you add the orange zest?
Wonderful. Shared to me by my daughter.
I made these cookies with King Arthur’s 1:1 gluten free flour and they turned out wonderfully!
Is it possible to add rolled oats to this recipe? If yes, how much and at what step?
Hi Jessie! We would use our white chocolate chip cherry oatmeal cookies recipe instead (you can sub dried cranberries for the dried cherries).
Hi Sally! I’d like to make this dough ahead of time and freeze until just before Christmas. I just watched your video on freezing cookie dough, would you recommend shaping these into the taller, tater tot kind of shape like you did with the chocolate chip cookies, or in balls? Thank you!
Hi Grace! These cookies should be just fine frozen in balls. Happy baking!
To those wanting to add chopped Macadamia nuts to this awesome recipe, please be aware of allergy concerns if using as neighbor gifts, etc.
can you use butter crisco blocks instead of butter? I find butter tends to give you a hard cookie that is crunchy
Hi Lily, you can certainly try that substitute.
Have you ever tried with nuts? Pistachios or pecans?
Hi Julie, Keep the total amount of add-ins to 1 and 3/4 cups. Staying within this amount, you can use a blend of dried cranberries, white chocolate morsels, and chopped nuts.
I love this recipe! If I wanted to add chopped macadamia nuts would any part of the recipe change?
Hi Sunny! Keep the total amount of add-ins to 1 and 3/4 cups. Staying within this amount, you can use a blend of dried cranberries, white chocolate morsels, and chopped macadamia nuts.
Can I triple this recipe. I need 7 dozen for a cookie exchange
Hi Jackie, this recipe doubles nicely, but tripling can overwhelm your mixer and make it a bit more difficult for the ingredients to incorporate properly. We’d make a double batch and then a single batch. Hope they’re a hit!
Lexi, you need a Bosch mixer. 😉 It can handle a quad batch of cookies, easy peasy.
I loved this receipe. Made a double batch using nuts instead of cranberries in the 2nd. It was a huge hit at our dinner party. It was devoured in minutes. It’s a keeper!
My family and I love your recipes!! Creating memories with your recipes has brought so much joy to our kitchen. I’ve cooked many of your recipes, and they have all turned out amazing, my family gives the thumbs up every time and asked when I’m I baking again!! Thank you!!
Rose
excellent. I massaged the zest of one orange into the sugar before creaming it with the butter, and the orange flavor was out of this world. I already have a second batch of cookie dough in my fridge! I love your recipes!
Wow -that sounds amazing. I might have to try that too
I am so going to try the orange zest in the sugar today
This recipe is one of the best recipes I’ve found yet! They will be a definite part of my holiday cookie collection going forward. The only change I made was 325° for oven temp.
Totally awesome!!
Do you use sweetened or unsweetened craisins? Thanks!
Hi Ellen, we usually use sweetened, but unsweetened would work just fine here. The cookies will still be plenty sweet!
This recipe is phenomenal. Pro tip, add a teaspoon of orange zest after creaming the butter and sugar, it adds so much more dimension to them (I’ve tried these cookies with it and without it). Also, 350 F was way too hot, as my test cookie burned at the bottom but was raw on top. I find 325 is the best, but experiment with your oven. These are a hit everytime and I will make these again and again
I’ve made this recipe several times and everyone always loves them. I like sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar dust when they are done sometimes. I also substitute dark chocolate chips in them from time to time and they always come out so very yummy!
This cookie recipe has turned into one I make all the time for company. Always a hit. I did margarine one and NEVER do margarine again. Real butter is a must. Chilling is a must. Thank you for such a great recipe!! I add pecans to mine:) ❤️❤️
What and how much should I add to give this cookie a little different added flavor? Thinking cinnamon/nutmeg/gingerbread spice. Your thoughts?
Hi Patty, you could try adding about 1/2 teaspoon of any of those spices, then adjust for more/less flavor in future batches.
Cinnamon and orange zest.
Made last year for Christmas and they were a big hit! I plan on making them each Christmas!
If I wanted to turn these into lemon cranberry cookies, how much lemon juice/zest would I have to add? And would I replace the vanilla extract with it?
Hi Elena, we’d start with about 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, depending on how strong you’d like the flavor. If desired, you could swap half the vanilla with lemon extract for even more lemon flavor (so 1 teaspoon vanilla + 1 teaspoon lemon). Let us know how it goes!
Really tasty! I added around 3/4 tsp lemon zest and also reduced the brown sugar to 140 g and the granulate sugar to 45 g. The cookies weren’t overwhelmingly sweet like I’d feared and the cranberries and lemon were great together! When I make these cookies again, I’ll try adding in some chopped nuts instead.
Best soft baked cookies! I’ll be using this recipe for chocolate chip cookies
For health reasons I’d love to use unbleached flour instead of bleached. How would that effect the end results?
Hi Adrian, I use unbleached flour. There is no difference in the outcome.
Thank you
Love this recipe but having a hard time because cookies don’t fall