Confession: up until this very moment, I’ve respectfully declined any cranberry oatmeal white chocolate chunk cookies passed my way.
I’m a dark chocolate lover, after all.
And cranberry white chocolate cookie are just…so…sweet.
There’s the sweetened-dried cranberries that have zero of the tart, fruity flavor of fresh cranberries. The flavorless, mostly-just-sugar white chocolate. The same amount of sugar usually in a chocolate chip cookie, now intensified by the aforementioned cranberries and white chocolate.
One bite and I’m already overwhelmed by the sheer sweetness of them. If you love them, more power to you! But for me, all I can taste in a classic cranberry white chocolate cookie is just straight up sweetness- no nuanced flavors, nothing exciting.
And yet, when I set out to make cookies for cookie week, the lure of the cranberry white chocolate cookie was STRONG.
So much so, that I decided to change the cranberry white chocolate cookie game.
Yup, you’re reading this correctly: we’re making cranberry white chocolate cookies for Day 3 of Cookie Week despite all of the words I just wrote about being underwhelmed by them.
Come, let me show you how to make them!
a better cranberry cookie
First, we’re ditching the standard sweetened dried cranberries. In their place? APPLE JUICE SWEETENED DRIED CRANBERRIES! Have you tried them? Ugh, they’re so good. They’re just sweet enough that the sour flavor of cranberry isn’t too strong, but still have such a bright, tart flavor. I get them in the bulk bins at my local co-op, but you can also find them at Whole Foods and online! Trader Joe’s also sometimes has unsweetened dried cranberries, which would also be lovely here!
Next, we’re buying the highest quality white chocolate we can find. i.e., not one that’s mostly just vegetable oil and sugar. I found fair trade/organic white chocolate chunks in bulk so I used those here. You could also just buy a bar of white chocolate and chop it into chunks yourself. Look for cocoa butter and milk powder as the main ingredients- you can even grab a vegan white chocolate bar and these cookies would be entirely vegan/dairy-free!
Finally, we’re making a cookie dough that’s much more nuanced in flavor with ingredients like almond butter, maple syrup, oats, vanilla, and whole wheat flour.
how to make the dough
This is a 1-bowl, 10 ingredient, under 30 minute cookie recipe. Nothing but a bowl and a spoon are needed for mixing, and the dough doesn’t need to chill or rest at all before baking!
We’re stirring together almond butter, coconut oil, maple syrup and vanilla. Adding salt, baking powder, oats and flour. Folding in the motherload of dried cranberries and white chocolate chunks. Scooping. Baking. Eating.
Voila! Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Chunk Cookies.
They’re thick, soft, chewy, and absolutely loaded with chunks in every bite.
And, if the amount of them I’ve eaten in the past two weeks is any indication, I think they might just be one of my new favorite cookies.
If you make them, be sure to let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, or take a picture of your cookies and share it with me on Instagram so I can see!!
Stay tuned for four more brand new recipes for Cookie Week!!
Cranberry Oatmeal White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup almond butter creamy, unsweetened
- 1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, soft at room temperature
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup oats
- 1 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup apple juice sweetened dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup chopped white chocolate from a bar or quality bagged chunks
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Place almond butter, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl and stir until fully combined.
- Add baking powder, oats, flour, cranberries, and white chocolate, and stir again to fully combine.
- Divide dough into 12 cookies (approx. 3 Tablespoons each), and place on baking sheet. Flatten each dough ball slightly with your fingers, as they don't spread much in the oven.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until golden around the edges and just barely set in the center.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature. We found these cookies to still be great up to 5 days after baking.