Soft and chewy cranberry oatmeal cookies are packed with dried cranberries, toasted pecans, and white chocolate. These cookies are hearty and satisfying, with lots of sweet, tart, and warm flavors.
If you like oatmeal cookies with raisins, you are going to love oatmeal cookies with craisins! You are really going to love oatmeal craisin cookies with the addition of crunchy toasted pecans and creamy white chocolate chips. These chewy oat cookies are my new favorite.
Add these to lunchboxes to provide a tasty source of energy. Oats, dried fruit, and nuts are a healthy combination, even in a cookie. I’ve been known to enjoy one or two of these as a grab and go breakfast too, or sometimes I make no-bake Oatmeal Balls.
Cranberry Oatmeal cookies are hearty, buttery, and just sweet enough. They are the perfect snack!
The colors in these Cranberry Oatmeal cookies make them a beautiful addition to holiday cookie platters or they can be wrapped up and given as gifts to your neighbors and friends.
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Soft and Chewy: Brown sugar in these cookies gives them a soft and chewy texture that in my opinion is the only way that Oatmeal cookies should be!
- Lots of Flavor: Tartness from the dried cranberries blends so well with the creamy sweetness of the white chocolate chips and the warmth that comes from ground cinnamon and toasted nuts. The flavor of these cookies is just amazing.
- Simple Recipe: Even if you’re not a pro cookie baker, the step by step instructions here make this oatmeal cookies with cranberries recipe super easy. Just follow along, your cookies are going to turn out great.
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Dry Ingredients Mix: Salt, baking soda, all purpose flour, and ground cinnamon are mixed together to create the dry base for our oatmeal cookies.
- Unsalted Butter: I almost always bake with unsalted butter, because I want to be able to control how much salt is in my sweet recipes. Let the butter soften to room temperature before mixing your cranberry oatmeal cookie dough.
- Sugar: Both white granulated sugar and light brown sugar go into this recipe. The blend of the two gives us the perfect soft and chewy texture.
- Eggs: Use two large eggs, and let them come to room temperature before mixing, just like the butter. Room temperature eggs will incorporate more smoothly into the cookie dough.
- Vanilla Extract: A must for almost every cookie recipe, a good quality pure vanilla extract (no imitation please!) adds that homemade baked good flavor that you expect.
- Quick Oats: Quick oats are my go-to when adding them to cookies. They are thin enough, but not so thin that they dissolve into the batter. Avoid instant oats or steel cut oats for this recipe, and buy the ones that say “quick” on the container.
- Add Ins: A lovely blend of chopped toasted pecans, white chocolate chips, and sweetened dried cranberries is added to these cookies. I used Ocean Spray Craisins here, but other brands will work.
Tip!
Be sure to let your butter and eggs come to room temperature before mixing up this cookie dough.
How to Make Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- Prepare to bake Cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, and line 2 half sheet size cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a bowl, combine salt, baking powder, flour, and cinnamon and set aside for later.
- Cream: In a large mixing bowl, using a hand held mixer, beat the softened butter with the sugars until well combined (about 1 minute). Then, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add Oats and Flour: Add the dry ingredients mix and the quick oats to the bowl and mix on very low speed until just combined.
- Mix: Add pecans, cranberries, and chocolate chips. Mix them in until combined.
- Scoop: Using a medium cookie scoop (2 tablespoon size), scoop out cookie balls and place on cookie sheet then flaten them with your hand or a bottom of glass (as the cookies won’t spread much). For better looking cookies, add more cranberries or chocolate chips to the top of each dough ball.
- Bake: Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips
Use other nuts. Not a huge fan of pecans? No problem! Use walnuts, almonds, or macadamia nuts instead. You can also leave them out all together and add more craisins and white chocolate chips to your cranberry oatmeal cookies instead.
Measuring Flour. Be sure to properly measure your flour by spooning it into your measuring cup, rather than scooping the measuring cup into the flour. Level the top of the measuring cup using the back of a butter knife.
Watch your cookies. Ovens all work a little bit differently, so your cookies may need a bit more or less time than mine did. Remove the cookies from the oven when the edges are set and the tops of the cookies are no longer shiny.
Let Them Cool. You want to let the cookies cool halfway on their baking sheets, this allows them to finish cooking and helps with the crispy edges. It also ensures that the cookies won’t fall apart when you try to move them to the racks.
More Homemade Cookie Recipes to Try
You can find all of my delicious cookie recipes here, but let me show you which are my all-time favorites:
FAQs
I used Ocean Spray Craisins in this recipe, which are sweetened dried cranberries. You can use unsweetened. The flavor of the cookies will be a bit more tart, but still yummy.
Oats in the breakfast aisle come in a few different styles: Instant, Quick, and Rolled oats are the most common, and you’ll also see Irish style and steel cut oatmeal. For baking cookies, I find that quick oats are best.
Instant oats are rolled extra thin so they cook faster, which can lead to them getting lost in the cookie dough, and rolled oats are thicker, which can lead to cookies that are too chewy. Quick oats are in between the two and are perfect here.
Store cooled cookies in a zipper bag or airtight container. They will stay fresh at room temperature for up to a week.
Oatmeal cookies with craisins freeze so well! Simply place them in an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before eating.
I don’t find it necessary to chill the dough for these oatmeal cookies. So don’t worry about it! These cookies go right from the mixing bowl to the oven.
I haven’t tested this recipe with fresh cranberries, so I can’t say for sure. My original thought is that they would probably be too wet. If you decide to try it, let me know how it goes!
You can make these oatmeal cookies without a cookie scoop, however I just love mine, and highly recommend it. Without a scoop, try to measure out two tablespoons of the cookie dough, and lightly form it into balls before adding to the baking sheet.
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies are the perfect chewy, hearty snack! Save this recipe so you can make it again and again – your family will definitely ask you to.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- Hand held mixer
- 2 cookie sheets
- Silicone baking mat
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup (55g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ⅓ cup (65g) granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup (65g) light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (180g) rolled or quick oats
- ½ cup pecans roughly chopped toasted
- ½ cup dried cranberries I used craisins Ocean spray brand
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C, and line 2 half sheet size cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine dry ingredients (salt, baking powder, flour, and cinnamon), and set aside.
- In a large bowl, using hand held mixer beat the butter with the sugars until well combined (1 minute). Then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add dry ingredients along with the oats, and on very low speed mix until just combined.
- Add pecans, cranberries and chocolate chips. Mix them in until combined.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (2 tbsp), scoop out cookie balls and place on cookie sheet. With your hand, or bottom of a glass, flatten the cookies a little as they won’t spread much as they bake. For better looking cookies add more cranberries or chocolate chips to the top of each cookie dough ball.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes:
- Storing. Store cooled cookies in a zipper bag or airtight container. They will stay fresh at room temperature for up to a week.
- Freezing. Place the cookies in an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before eating.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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