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These Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies are soft and chewy oatmeal cookies filled with dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, and crunchy pistachios. They’re made with brown sugar to keep them soft and the combination of flavors makes them anything but boring! They’re the perfect color and flavor for the holidays, but you can make them all year long and even freeze them for later!
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
I’ve made more oatmeal cookies than I can count over the years, and I always come back to my favorite chewy oatmeal cookie recipe as a starting point. I love taking a cookie recipe I already know works and changing up the mix-ins to make something completely new. For these, I wanted something more interesting than oatmeal raisin and I wanted a Christmas cookie with cranberries. The white chocolate is a classic addition to cranberry and the pistachios add some green and also a delicious crunch.
One ting I’ve learned from developing so many cookie recipes (I even wrote a whole cookbook about cookies!) is that the type of oats you use really does matter. I prefer quick-cooking oats because they give the cookies that chewy oatmeal texture without making them too thick or coarse. The dough also needs a quick 30 minutes of chilling, which keeps them puffy. And I’m a big believer in baking ahead, so these freeze great, making them perfect for Christmas.
Cranberry Oatmeal Cookie Ingredients
- Oatmeal Cookie Ingredients: All of my oatmeal cookies have the same basic ingredients. Unsalted butter (softened), lots of packed brown sugar, egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and all-purpose flour with oats.
- Quick Cooking Oats: I use quick oats in my cookie recipes instead of old fashioned oats – did you know you can make your own quick cook oats if you only have rolled oats? (Note I do not recommend using steel cut oats in this recipe.)
- Mix-ins: Sweetened Dried Cranberries (Craisins), White chocolate chips, Salted pistachios. Feel free to substitute chopped pecans or walnuts if you prefer, or omit, and raisins work great in this recipe too. Or even apples like in my apple oatmeal cookies!
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Dorothy’s Expert Cookie Tips
- If you chill the dough for longer than 30 minutes, cover the pan with plastic wrap, so it doesn’t dry out. If the dough is very cold when you bake the cookies, I recommend lightly pressing them down into a disc. Very cold dough won’t spread as much, and this will help.
- If you have old-fashioned oats on hand, you can turn them into quick oats for this recipe. Pulse them in a food processor to break them down until they look like quick oats.
- If you use salted butter, reduce the amount of added salt by ¼ teaspoon.
- These are great on a holiday platter with cinnamon roll cookies!
Chewy Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup (150g) packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup (93g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ⅔ cups (150g) quick cooking oats
- ¾ cups (94g) dried cranberries
- ½ cup (85g) white chocolate chips
- ½ cup (65g) salted pistachios
Instructions
- Cream butter and brown sugar with a hand or a stand mixer in a large bowl. Beat until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix until smooth.
- Mix in flour, then mix in quick oats.
- Add cranberries, white chocolate and pistachios and stir until combined.
- Drop 2 tablespoon cookie dough balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. No need to space; we are chilling the dough. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a second cookie sheet with parchment or silicone and space the cookies 2-inches apart.
- Bake 12-16 minutes, or until no longer glossy on top and light golden around the edges. Cool at least 5 minutes before removing from pan.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
- Feel free to use any nut in place of the pistachios. You can also omit the nuts and add extra white chocolate and/or cranberries.
- If using salted butter reduced salt to ¼ teaspoon.
- To make your own quick oats from old fashioned, pulse them a few times in the food processor.
- If chilling longer than 1 hour, cover with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Storing Oatmeal Cookies
Once the cookies are thoroughly cooled, store them in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature. You can freeze them for up to three months. For the best results, keep them in a freezer bag or container and separate the layers of cookies with paper towels. When you thaw them, the towels will absorb the excessive moisture.
How to Make Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
- Butter and brown sugar should be creamed until light and fluffy.
- Always whisk the dry ingredients first.
- Add the oats last, before the add-ins.
- The dough requires chilling so you do not need to space them when you first scoop them.
FAQ
I don’t recommend that for this recipe – the cookies don’t cook long enough for the fresh cranberries to cook all the way and they’ll be too juicy, causing the cookies to not bake properly.
No soaking required – just add them to your batter. However, if you like juicier raisins or dried fruits, then you can soak them first.
This recipe uses instant oats – I find quick oats to be better in cookies. Old Fashioned oats are too coarse and create too thick of a batter.
I would like to get some recipes for diabetics. Like cookies,pies,cakes, cobblers and other of interest.