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These white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies have a hint of orange zest and are perfect for the holiday season! These cookies are thick and chewy with a mix of tart and sweet! Pin it for Later »

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies lined up after baked

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies Overview

These white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies are perfect for your holiday cookie tin. They have a beautiful mix of tartness from the orange zest and dried cranberries, and sweetness from the white chocolate. 

I highly recommend using a good quality white chocolate chip (I like the Ghirardelli white chocolate chips) for the best flavor. I also prefer to use rolled oats in these cookies for more contrast of texture, but quick oats will also work if that is what you have on hand. 

How to Make White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Step 1: Cream Butter and Sugar

Creaming butter and sugar together for white chocolate cranberry cookies

It is important for your butter to truly be at room temperature when you cream it with your sugar. This is going to not only help leaven your cookies, but it will increase the volume of your dough (which means more cookies!). The recipe calls for dark brown sugar for the most chew, however you can use light brown sugar if you prefer. 

Step 2: Mix in Eggs, Vanilla, and Orange Zest

Adding orange zest and egg to bowl for cranberry white chocolate cookies

We are going to add the zest in here with the vanilla and eggs so that it gets distributed through the butter. Fat helps carry to flavor of the zest, giving you more bang for your buck. It is also important that your eggs are at room temperature so you don’t break the emulsion of butter and sugar that you made during creaming. 

Step 3: Mix in Dry Ingredients

 Instead of mixing all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, I mix them straight into the dough. Start with the salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon and let those get evenly distributed before adding the flour. Once those are combined, you can add the flour. Make sure you do not mix very much once the flour is in so that your don’t end up with a tough cookie. 

Step 4: Fold in the Mix-Ins

Folding in oats, dried cranberries, and white chocolate chips into cookie dough

 Now we are going to fold in the mix-ins with a rubber spatula. I don’t like using a mixer for this part because the dough is very thick and you are risking overdeveloping the gluten. 

Step 5: Bake

Scoop rounded mounds of cookie dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets. I like to use a large cookie scoop (about 1.5 oz, 3TBSP in size) for these cookies. It keeps them very thick and chewy. Bake until the edges are set and the middles still look slightly underdone. They will continue cooking as they cool. 

Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

  • I find that the cookies bake more evenly when you bake one tray at a time. Try not to overcrowd the pan. I bake about 8 cookies per sheet pan. 
  • This cookie recipe works really well as a base recipe to change up the flavors! Use dried cherries instead of cranberries and dark chocolate chips instead of white chocolate chips! 
  • To keep the cookies extra soft, allow them to cool completely and then store them in an airtight container at room temperature. 
  • White chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies freeze very well! To refresh, put in a 300 F oven for about 10 minutes, or until warmed through. 
White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies lined up after baked
Yield: 24-28 Cookies

White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Thick and chewy white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies with orange zest. The cookies get slightly crisp on the outside and stay super soft and chewy on the inside. 

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks (1 cup, 226 gr) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cups (340) dark brown sugar, lightly packed
  • 2 large eggs, room temp
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 TBSP orange zest
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 1/4 cups (270 gr) all purpose flour (*spooned and leveled)
  • 3 cups (294 gr) rolled oats
  • 1 cup (224 gr) white chocolate chips (plus more for topping if desired)
  • 1 cup (120 gr) dried cranberries (plus more for topping if desired)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 C) and position the oven rack in the center of the oven.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy- about 3 minutes. With the mixer still running add in the eggs, vanilla, and orange zest. Mix for just about 10 seconds then stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix again just until incorporated.
  3. Add the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon to the mixing bowl. Mix until evenly distributed. Add the flour to the mixing bowl and mix on low speed just until absorbed. Do not over-mix.
  4. Fold in the rolled oats, chocolate chips, and dried cranberries with a rubber spatula. It will be a fairly thick dough and I sometimes find that clean hands work best to finish mixing. This helps to avoid over-mixing.
  5. Use a large scoop (I use a 1.5 oz, 3TBSP scoop) to scoop rounded mounds of dough onto baking sheets, no more than 8 cookies per sheet. If desired, add more white chocolate chips and cranberries to each dough mound for a more visually appealing cookie. Gently press down each dough mound just slightly. You want to keep them fairly thick so that they do not come out completely flat.
  6. Bake, 1 cookie sheet at a time, at 375 F (190 C) for 9-12 minutes or until the edges are set and the cookies still look slightly under baked in the middle. Allow to cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
  7. After completely cooled, store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

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© Bettie
Category: All Recipes