White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
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Big fat white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies! The name pretty much has it covered — thick cookies with slightly crisped exteriors and soft chewy center, loaded with sweet white chocolate chips and dried cranberries and made with pulverized oats. These cookies have the best texture, and their flavor is unforgettable!
Zach asked me to make this recipe for him a while ago after tasting them at a work lunch.
I dutifully wrote down all of the cookie qualities that he asked for: cranberries, white chocolate, soft and chewy interiors, and oats, but without an overwhelmingly “oaty” (!?) texture. I then proceeded to skip right on past that recipe request for the next year and a half.
Yup, a year and a half.
You’d think that with all of the baking that I do every day my very own husband wouldn’t need to wait 545 days or so for such a simple request, but here we are, and when I told him that I’d finally made these white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies for him, he had literally no idea what I was even talking about.
Fortunately, that didn’t stop him from inhaling a dozen of them still warm (and commenting that they would be great with some nuts added, which were definitely not on the original request list!).
Most of the qualities that he had requested were easy enough to match. I started by making my favorite oatmeal cookies and added the cranberries and white chocolate chips, but I found that the texture was definitely too “oaty” (I spent a long time pondering over this word, and have resolved to now leave myself better notes moving forward).
I wanted chewier cookies that complemented the abundance of add-ins that are included here without competing against them. I like a cookie with texture, but my first few batches were definitely too much and almost seemed like I was biting into a granola bar rather than a cookie.
I finally found the perfect way to include oats by pulverizing them in my food processor for a few seconds before stirring them into the dough.
This gave the cookies a perfect texture — you won’t want to process them to pure powder, but add them to your food processor and just pulse for about five seconds until they’re mostly broken up (finer than instant oats, but not completely pulverized, see the picture above).
Make sure that you chill this cookie dough before baking. Chilling will keep your cookies from spreading too thin, I like to chill them and then bake on 375 (as opposed to 350, which is the temperature I use for many of my cookies) for thick, fat cookies.
Chilling also gives the flavors a bit of time to begin to really meld together, there’s a small amount of cinnamon sprinkled into the dough that gives these white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies a subtle spice.
Can I just say that I know I’m getting way ahead of myself right now, but I really think these would make great Christmas cookies. Make them today, but make sure you save the recipe for the upcoming holidays, too!
Enjoy!
Just a heads-up that I’ll be going Live on my Facebook page at 12:00 EST tomorrow and would love it if you could join me! Thank you to everyone who tuned in for last week’s Live where I had my special guest, Andi — I’m hoping I can convince her to help me again this week!
White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups (200 g) old fashioned rolled oats , measure before processing in food processor
- 1 cup (216 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar , tightly packed
- ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup (218 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch, cornflour in UK
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 ¼ cup (212 g) premium white chocolate chips
- 1 ¼ cup (200 g) dried cranberries or Craisins
Instructions
- Place your oats in a food processor and pulse about 5-10 seconds. Set aside.2 ½ cups (200 g) old fashioned rolled oats
- Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or using an electric beater) for about 30 seconds. Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy (pause to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl, if needed).1 cup (216 g) butter, 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined.2 large eggs
- Stir in vanilla extract1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.1 ¾ cup (218 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture until completely combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so ingredients are well-mixed.
- Gradually stir in oats until completely combined. Add white chocolate chips and cranberries and stir well.1 ¼ cup (212 g) premium white chocolate chips, 1 ¼ cup (200 g) dried cranberries or Craisins
- Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375F (190C) and prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper.
- Drop cookie by rounded 2 Tablespoon-sized ball onto parchment paper, spacing at least 2" apart.
- Bake on 375F for 10-12 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown (centers may still seem slightly underbaked, they'll finish cooking as they cool on the cookie sheet)
- Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before serving and enjoying.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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These were phenomenal! Perfect ratio of chips to cranberries, and breaking down the oats to that texture was genius. They reminded me so much of my favorite cookies and cream cookie from chip city, so I just searched online for a recipe, and lo and behold, you have a recipe for those, too, and it’s rated five stars! You have an avid fan now, thank you for your great recipes!
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Lindsey! I’m so glad they were such a success. I hope you love all of my recipes. Enjoy! 🙂
Is it possible to use brown butter after it cools and solidifies but soft? Just an experimental question!
Hi Lora! You may need to make some adjustments because you are cooking out some of the moisture when browning the butter. I haven’t personally used brown butter here so I can’t say exactly what you would need to do.
This is my go-to recipe for Cranberry -Oats-White Chocolate Cookies. A crowd pleaser, for me, must have during Holiday Season.
Absolutely delicious! Made these as part of my Christmas cookie box this year and they were definitely a favorite. Also THANK YOU for putting the ingredient measurements in the recipe instructions!! Made it so much easier while I was baking to not have to scroll back up 🙂 Will definitely be making these again!!!
Soft and delicious. I added walnuts
Love .. one of the best cookies I’ve ever made..
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Eileen! 🙂
I would rate these as just ok. I used premium ingredients and even used twice the vanilla. Aside from the mix ins, they just didn’t have enough flavor for me.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened! Is it possible they were slightly over-baked or the flour was slightly over-measured? This will cause a bland flavor.
I don’t think either of those things were the case, I weigh all ingredients and baked until they were just set. I just think this recipe wasn’t for me. I appreciate the response.