White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Soft and chewy vanilla cookies with white chocolate chips and dried cranberry, perfect for this wintery weather! Read on to know how to bake soft cookies each time.

Happy Halloweeeeenn you guys! I come bearing cookies 😀 There’s no pumpkin but there’s chocolate, lots of it and who doesn’t love chocolates, huh? My White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies are super yum and great for the upcoming winter season. They keep well and really versatile. If don’t have access to dried cranberry you can use raisins or dried figs and if you like, use dark chocolate chips instead.

I’ve used my standard cookie recipe that I used to make my Chocolate Chip Sprinkle Cookies, Gems Cookies and Half and Half Chocolate Chip Cookies. It’s really simple and I do have a substitute for eggs in the recipe too. Now going to the texture of these cookies. Like I always say, I’m a huge fan of soft, chewy cookies like the ones you get at Subway (not the best example but you know what I mean right) so I make it a point to bake soft cookies. If you’re looking for a crunchy recipe you should try my All Butter Cookies, which REALLY good and crunchy.

Now there’s no secret to baking soft cookies but just a few simple tips that I’ve learnt over the years.

1. Under Bake – Under baking  cookies makes cookies really soft. Bake your cookies for just 8-10 minutes and don’t worry about them being uncooked. They’ll be super soft the minute you take them out but after sometime they will firm up a little and have the perfectly soft texture.
2. Eggs – Eggs are essential to soft cookies but if you can’t eat eggs add cornstarch instead. If you’ve never added eggs to cookies before, try them once and you’ll never go back.
3. Brown Sugar – Brown sugar has molasses that makes cookies soft and chewy, so if you want to add moisture add brown sugar. On the other hand, if you love crunchy cookies use white sugar.

Now that you know what’t needed to bake soft cookies, you can get on to baking these White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies.Let me know how you get on!

RECIPE: White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies

Makes: 12-14 cookies   Prep Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes    Baking Time: 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

• Flour (maida), 1 1/4 measuring cup or 180 grams
• Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon
• Salt, 1/2 teaspoon
• Softened Butter, 100 grams
• Sugar, 130 grams (mix of white and dark brown)
• Egg, 1  (Or 1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 4 tablespoon water)
• Vanilla Essence, 1 teaspoon
• White Chocolate Chips, 1/2 measuring cup
• Dried cranberry/ raisins/figs/cherries, 1/2 measuring cup
• Milk, 1/4 cup or 60 ml (Optional- Add this only if the dough feels too dry)

METHOD

Sift flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and keep aside to be used later.

In a separate bowl, whisk butter until soft and fluffy. Add in the sugar and whisk again until properly combined. Lightly whisk in the egg and vanilla essence too.

Add the dry flour mix to this butter mixture using a spatula and mix until you no longer see dry pockets of flour. Avoid over mixing as that can make your cookies really hard.

The mixture shouldn’t be too dry or too wet. If it feels too hard to work with, add in the milk little by little but make sure that dough isn’t runny either. It should be slightly sticky, not too dry. To get the perfect consistency, try making balls using your hands, if you can make balls but the dough sticks to your hands, it’s ready. If it doesn’t stick to your hands at all, add a little milk to make it moist. Remember : Sticky is good. It’ll yield softer cookies.

Add in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberry. Mix until they’re properly dispersed.

Wrap the dough in a cling film or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Chilling is important so DO NOT SKIP IT.

After an hour is over, take out dough to make cookies. In the meantime, preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.

To make cookies, take about a tablespoon of dough per cookie, roll the dough in your palm of your hands and slightly press them to make them flatter. Don’t make them too flat as the cookies will spread after baking.

Bake Cookies at 180 degrees Celsius for 9-10 minutes and take them out when done. The cookies will be really soft, so do not lift them just yet. Add some chocolate chips on top and slightly press them, since the cookies are hot at this stage and soft, the chips will easily fit on top, melt slightly and stick to it. This is purely for looks so you can skip this if you like.

Lift the cookies once they’re cool. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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 Looking for similar recipes? Try these…

Chocolate Chip and Sprinkle Cookies

Candy Cookies aka Gems Cookies (eggless)

Half and Half Chocolate Chip Cookies

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies