A delightful batch of Soft Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Perfect for your holiday season baking and a fantastic recipe to enjoy all year round. These cookies are soft and chewy in texture with a slight crisp edging. With each mouthful, you’re guaranteed to get sweet and tart dried cranberries along with creamy and smooth white chocolate chips.
This recipe is a new variation from my favourite cookie recipe, The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Both recipes promise you a bakery style flavour and texture. These cranberry white chocolate chip cookies are simple and are created in one bowl (yes, one bowl, woohoo!) and loaded with generous amounts of dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Holiday Themed Cookies Or All Year Round?
Holiday themed cookies are so fun but don’t let the Christmas flare stop you from making these right away. This classic combination of dried cranberries and heavenly white chocolate chips offer a special kind of cookie and an indulgent one at that. You’ll love their chewy texture which is achieved by including cornstarch.
Why Use Cornstarch In Cookies?
Why use cornstarch? When cornstarch is added along with plain all purpose flour, you’re actually creating cake flour. Cake flour helps soften baked goods as it reduces the harsh gluten proteins in the regular flour. This leaves you with tender, soft and chewy cookies.
Key Ingredients
Unsalted butter to create structure, flavour and colour. Butter is the foundation to these cookies.
Raw granulated sugar adds sweetness, colour and structure. Also keeps these cookies fresh.
Light brown sugar adds a nice toffee flavour, makes them chewy and helps them spread during baking.
Egg adds moisture and structure. Also what helps make these cookies chewy in texture.
Vanilla extract for a hint of extra flavour.
Cornstarch or arrowroot flour helps to prevent the development of gluten, making it less rigid therefore, makes these cookies soft and chewy, not tough or dense.
Baking soda as the leavening agent.
Fine salt enhances flavour, balances sweetness and contributes to the chewy texture.
Dried cranberries as one of the main flavours. They’re sweet yet tart and perfect to add to your holiday baking recipes.
White chocolate chips for that heavenly, creamy and smooth chocolate chip element. They work so beautifully paired with the dried cranberries don’t they?
How To Make These Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies Or Watch It Here
- First, melt your butter. Then set it aside to cool for 10-15 minutes until it’s only slightly warm. Just don’t let it firm back up again.
- Pour your cooled butter into a large mixing bowl. Add both of the sugars and whisk until they’re well combined with the butter. A light thick mixture will form and will continue to thicken up the longer you leave it.
- Add your egg and the vanilla. Whisk until they’re well combined and the mixture is smooth. Sift over the flour, cornstarch (or arrowroot flour if using) and the baking soda. Now add your salt. Fold and mix in these dry ingredients with a spatula or wooden spoon until they’re well combined and a soft cookie dough begins to form, it will be thick.
- Add your cranberries and white chocolate chips. Fold them in until they’re well distributed throughout the dough. Transfer the bowl with cookie dough inside to your refrigerator. Chill for 1 hour. You can also chill your dough overnight, if do you, remove your dough from the fridge 30 minutes before you create the cookies.
- Whilst your dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Then line a large flat baking tray with parchment paper and it set aside.
- Remove your dough from the refrigerator. Using a cookie scoop, I use a cookie scoop that holds one and a half tablespoons. I take two scoops of cookie batter and squish them together and roll them into a ball. Each ball needs to weigh 50g each, which is 1.7 ounces.
- Place them on your lined tray and leave them as cookie balls, do not flatten them down. Leave enough space between each ball, about 10cm, which is 4 inches. Repeat with your remaining dough. You will be baking your cookies in batches, as they won’t all fit on the one baking tray.
- Bake your cookies for 10 minutes until they’re golden around the edges. The middles will still look slightly under-baked, it’s ok to remove them as they’ll continue to bake on the tray whilst they cool. Ensure not to over-bake your cookies as it will dry them out too much, preventing a soft and chewy cookie!
- When baked, remove them from the oven and tap your baking tray three times on your bench top or your stove top. This will help them slightly deflate which creates that signature wave appearance. Allow them to cool on the tray for 30 minutes. Then carefully transfer your cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Some will still be quite soft until they completely cool, so be careful they don’t break when moving them to onto your wire rack.
- Enjoy them whilst they’re still warm and gooey from the oven or cool them down completely to enjoy later.
Watch How To Make These Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
How To Store & Freeze Your Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Store your cookies in an airtight container, in a dark dry pantry for 1 week.
- To freeze these cookies, place them in an airtight container, in single rows and layers. Then place either a layer of aluminium foil or plastic wrap between each layer of cookies so they’re not directly touching when sitting on top of each other. For even better results, wrap each cookie individually in the foil or plastic wrap then layer them up in your airtight container. Place the container in your freezer and freeze for up to 2 months.
- To defrost frozen cookies, remove them from their container, or how ever many cookies you need to defrost. Place them on a plate or board and set them aside at room temperature until they’ve completely thawed. To freshen them up, warm them again in the oven at the temperature of 160ºC (325ºF) for 5-10 minutes or until warmed through and they have softened.
Recipe Tips
When you melt the butter, be sure to cool it back down so it’s only slightly warm. If it’s too hot, when you add the egg in the next step, it can cook the egg, which you do not want.
The addition of the cornstarch is an important one. It’s also called cornflour in some other countries such as Australia. If you don’t have cornstarch, you can slo substitute it for arrowroot flour. It helps prevent the development of the gluten, making it less rigid therefore, makes these cookies soft and chewy, not tough or dense.
Looking for more holiday cookie recipes? Here are some favourites:
Classic Shortbread Cookie (Gluten Free Option)
If you make this recipe please be sure to let me know how you go in the comments below and tag me on Instagram with your delicious photos & video! I love to see what you guys are making from the blog and enjoying with your loved ones.
Soft Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 cookies 1x
Description
These cookies are soft and chewy in texture with a slight crisp edging. With each mouthful, you’re guaranteed to get sweet and tart dried cranberries along with creamy and smooth white chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- 160g unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup (100g) raw granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (140g) lightly packed regular brown sugar, not dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature (each weighing approx. 55g-60g in shell)
- 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (225g) plain all purpose flour
- 2 tsp (7g) cornstarch/cornflour or arrowroot flour
- 1 tsp (7g) baking soda
- ½ tsp (4g) fine salt
- ¾ cup (90g) dried cranberries
- ¾ cup (130g) white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Melt butter then set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes until it’s only slightly warm. Don’t let it firm back up again.
- Pour butter into a large mixing bowl. Add both sugars and using a handheld whisk, whisk for 20 seconds until well combined, it will slowly start to thicken and the longer you leave it, the thicker it will get, so be sure not too leave it sitting for too long as it will be harder to whisk through your egg in the next step.
- Add egg and vanilla, whisk until well combined, about 15 seconds.
- Sift over flour, cornstarch and baking soda. Then add the salt. Fold and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until well combined and a soft cookie dough begins to form, it will be thick.
- Add dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. Fold/mix until they’re well distributed throughout the dough.
- Transfer bowl with cookie dough inside to the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour. You can also chill your dough overnight, if do you, remove your dough from the fridge 30 minutes before you create the cookies. If your bowl is too large for the fridge, just wrap your dough directly and place it in the fridge without the bowl.
- Whilst dough is chilling, preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Line a large flat baking tray with parchment paper, set aside.
- Remove dough from fridge.
- To create, weigh out each cookie to be 50g (2oz). If you don’t have a food scale, measure each cookie to be 3 level tablespoons. I highly recommended you use a food scale to measure each one.
- Place onto lined tray, leaving as tall balls, do not flatten.
- Repeat with remaining dough, leaving a gap of 10cm (4 inches) between each cookie ball on tray to allow for spreading, also leaving a bit of gap between the balls and the edges of the tray. You will have to bake your cookies in batches as they won’t all fit on one baking tray.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden around the edges and lightly golden in the middles. The centre of each will still look slightly under-baked which is great, that’s what makes them soft and chewy.
- Remove from oven and gently tap the baking tray on your bench top or stove top 3 times to help slightly deflate. Allow cookies to cool on tray for 30 minutes.
- Carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. They’ll still be soft and delicate so handle with care to avoid breakages.
- Cool completely on rack or allow one to firm up a little to enjoy a warm cookie whilst the choc chunks are still gooey, delicious!
- Store in an airtight container, in a dark dry pantry for 1 week. Refer to notes for freezing instructions.
- Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 20min
- Chill Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 min
Sharon says
Hi, thanx for the recipe! I made these cookies & they were chewy & delicious…only thing is they were too sweet…how do u think I should adjust the recipe so they are still delicious but a lot lesser sweetness?
Samantha says
Hi Sharon, so happy to hear you made and enjoyed these cookies! They're absolutely delicious. I haven't tested this recipe with any adjusted quantities of the sugars but you can try reducing the amount of the granulated sugar, perhaps down to 1/4 cup and see how that goes. The brown sugar is what really gives these cookies that chewiness but again, it's trial and error with playing around with the quantities and reducing both sugars. Cutting the sugars down will alter the texture and look of the end product. You can even reduce the white chocolate chips as they're quite sweet in each mouthful. I hope that helps and would love to hear how you go! Sam 🙂
Sharon says
Thanx Sam! Will surely make another batch soon & will let u know how’s the adjustment, hopefully they work well
Tina says
Amazingly delicious! Thanks x
★★★★★
Samantha says
Hi Tina, thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed these cookies, thanks for sharing. They're one of my new favourites! 🙂