These White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies are chewy, sweet and so easy to make. Thick oatmeal cookies sweetened with brown sugar and packed with cranberries and white chocolate!
Raise your hand if you LOVE oatmeal cookies! I’ve been making (and gobbling down) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies for years. This version with white chocolate and cranberries might be my new favorite.
Why this Recipe Works
In my family, there are two types of oatmeal cookie lovers: the ones who want chocolate in their cookies and the ones who want dried fruit. I happen to be both.
Give me a chewy oatmeal raisin cookie or one stuffed with chocolate chips and I’m happy either way. A few years ago, I tried making oatmeal cookies with dried cranberries instead of raisins.
They were even better.
This recipe takes that basic oatmeal cranberry cookie and adds in sweet morsels of white chocolate. The result is an easy dessert that everyone in my household agrees is DELICIOUS.
You can even make the dough ahead of time and freeze it. Then, you’re never more than few minutes away from decadent fresh baked cookies.
White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberries are simple to make but have an impressive flare! Serve them with a glass of cold milk or your afternoon coffee.
And in case you’re wondering, these are quite different from a classic cranberry white chocolate cookie. The oatmeal gives these a whole new dimension of texture and flavor!
Ingredient Notes
- Old Fashioned Rolled Oats. Also called “whole” oats. Do not sub quick oats here! Quick oats will absorb the moisture of the dough and make the cookies crumbly.
- Dark brown sugar. I prefer this to light brown sugar here for its richer molasses flavor and higher moisture content.
- Vanilla extract. Use my Vanilla Extract recipe for even better flavor.
- Unsalted butter. Melt the butter and let it cool slightly before using in the oatmeal cranberry cookies.
- Dried Cranberries. Use a fresh bag of Craisins for this recipe, if you start with stale craisins, you end with stale craisins.
Easy Instructions
STEP 1. Make the dough
Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Add the dry mixture to the wet and mix until just combined. Fold in the oats, 1 cup of dried cranberries and 1 cup of white chocolate chips.
STEP 2. Chill
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
STEP 3. Bake
Drop cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet by the spoonful. Press a few more white chocolate chips and cranberries into each one. Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes.
Let oatmeal cranberry cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Tips and Tricks
- Do not over bake. The cookies are done when the edges have started to brown. The center of the cookies will still appear soft. They continue to bake on the baking sheet after you take it out of the oven.
- Freezing dough. Scoop the cookie dough into balls and let them freeze until solid on a baking sheet. Then, transfer to freezer bags and store for up to 3 months.
- Baking frozen cookie dough. No need to thaw the cookie dough before using. Just place frozen cookies on the baking sheet and add 1 to 2 minutes of additional baking time.
Recipe FAQs
Pressing the chocolate and cranberries gives these cookies a more enticing appearance. The cranberries and white chocolate are more noticeable than if you just fold them into the dough.
No, rolled oats and steel cut oats are not the same. Steel cut oats are much coarser and give the cookies an unpleasant texture and taste. Make sure to use old fashioned rolled oats only in this oatmeal cranberry cookies recipe!
Sure, go ahead and freeze baked cookies if you like! They’ll keep well in freezer bags for 2 – 3 months.
I strongly recommend letting the dough chill for a full hour. This helps the cookies develop a more pronounced brown sugar flavor and a super chewy texture. I promise it is worth it. If you need a cranberry oatmeal cookie recipe with no chill time required, check out my classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Swap the raisins for cranberries and they’ll be delicious!
More Cookie Recipes
- Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Recipe
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Chocolate Covered Oreos
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Scotchies
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White Chocolate Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- 1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1 ¼ cups dried cranberries divided
- 1 ¼ cups white chocolate morsels divided
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and cornstarch together. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine butter and brown sugar together with a hand mixer on high speed for about 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another minute.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low, just until combined. Add in the old-fashioned oats and combine on low speed. Fold in 1 cups of the dried cranberries and 1 cup of the white chocolate chips, reserving ¼ cup of each for the tops of the cookies.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Drop cookie dough by about 2-3 Tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheet. Press 2-3 dried cranberries and 2-3 white chocolate chips into the tops of the cookie.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. Don’t overbake. The edges will start to brown first. The middle of the cookie may seem like it’s underbaked, but it will continue to bake when it’s taken out of the oven.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to sit on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes. Transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- STORAGE: Store cookies in an airtight container, at room temperature for up to a week. Freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months.
- FREEZING DOUGH: Dough can be frozen, unbaked for up to 3 months. I recommended rolling (scooping) the dough into balls before freezing. When baking, add an additional 1-2 minutes to bake time for the frozen cookie dough.
- Pressing the white chocolate chips and cranberries on top after baking helps the cookies look enticing. This is totally optional. If you skip this step, add all the cranberries and morsels to the cookie dough instead.
- Oats. Do not sub quick oats. They will absorb all the moisture leaving a dry and crumbly cookie.
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Extra chewy with a rich brown sugar flavor and flecks of white chocolate, these Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies are to die for! Bake up a batch today and watch how quickly they disappear.
The cookies were chewy and delicious! There was already a sufficient amount of cranberries and white chocolate chips in the dough that I did not need to add many to the tops of the cookies before baking.
Thank you for this recipe, these cookies were so good that they didn’t make it long in my house. Will def be making these more than once, or twice
These cookies are absolutely delicious. They are so moist and chewy. I will definitely keep this recipe.
We were looking for a Whole Foods oatmeal cranberry white chocolate cookie recipe. This cookie turned out delicious. Cooking time was a little longer. We added grated nutmeg and extra tbsp molasses as well for our flavor preferences.
Taste delicious but did not flatten as shown in your pics. Followed exact recipe. Would like to try again if I understand why did they not flatten. Had to use a spatula to flatten them before and after the baking.
These cookies have it all! Flavor packed with dried cranberries, white chocolate chips and an oatmeal cookies base. I loved every bite!
Thank you for this recipe! The flavor of cranberries and white chocolate is amazing and it will go in my “Hall of Fame”!!
Yay, so happy to hear it!! It truly is a cookie worth making 🙂
I love adding chewy cranberries to cookies! They add a nice texture & I especially love them when white chocolate chips are added!
These oatmeal cranberry cookies are so soft and chewy! The BEST cookies to make when craving a sweet treat!
Wow, these are amazing!! I love the combination of the oatmeal, white chocolate, & cranberries! They are nice & chewy!