White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies – Fall Recipe
Living in Toronto, we experience erratic weather changes. Although Fall officially began last month, we had temperatures close to 15-20 degrees Celcius for the past several weeks and recently, temperatures have dipped to around 5 degrees! It’s like we just skipped Fall and went straight to Winter…
Anyways, I’m not quite ready for Fall to be over yet so I recently started baking some Fall recipes. One of the few recipes I wanted to try were these White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies. Whenever one hears of cranberries, I feel like they immediately think about Fall – probably due to its association with Thanksgiving dishes (i.e. cranberry sauce)?
Anyhow, I was excited to make these as I usually make the standard Chocolate Chip Cookies. Wanting to switch things up a bit, I leveraged one of our favourite Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from Serious Eats to use as the base recipe for this cookie. What I like about the Serious Eats recipe is that instead of using regular butter, they use Brown Butter which lends a nuttier, butterscotch flavour than regular butter. Browning butter requires patience and a lot of attention as if you don’t watch it, you might end up burning the milk solids which will affect the overall taste of the brown butter. I cook the butter on medium heat for about 8 minutes, whisking occasionally until it turns golden brown and it starts smelling caramel-y. I aim for this color.
Then, I place an ice cube in there and whisk to facilitate the cooling down process and stick it in the fridge until it has fully cooled. You’ll know it’s cooled when it turns opaque and the sides are starting to solidify.
You are now ready to incorporate this into your recipe! I followed the Serious Eats recipe up until they had to incorporate the chocolate at which point, I added in our dried cranberries and white chocolate chips. To enhance the cranberry flavour, I added the zest of half an orange, and freshly squeezed orange juice from a small wedge of orange. Once incorporated, put the cookie dough in saran wrap and let it refrigerate for at least 1 day (max 3) for maximum flavour! Once ready to bake, scoop into little balls on a silpat or baking sheet and bake at 325F for about 16 mins or until golden brown on the side.
Once done, allow to chill for 15 mins and enjoy! I really enjoyed how they turned out. Since I don’t eat that many cookies, I’ll likely freeze a bunch of rolled cookie dough balls so I can easily bake them when I have cravings for them 🙂
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies - Fall Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 standard ice cube
- 10 oz all-purpose flour (about 2 cups)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 5 oz granulated sugar (about 3/4 cup)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 5 oz dark brown sugar (about 1/2 tightly packed cup plus 2 tablespoons)
- 3/4 cups dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- zest of half an orange
- juice of an orange wedge
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Instructions
- 1. First, make the brown butter. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and continue cooking, swirling the pan regularly to prevent burning. Continue monitoring the butter for about 8 minutes or until it turns golden brown and the butter starts smelling like caramel.
- 2. Once the butter has browned, remove from heat and transfer to another bowl and whisk in ice cube to prevent it from overcooking. Transfer to refrigerator and allow to cool completely (about 20 minutes). Whisking occasionally - you'll know it's ready when it turns opaque and the sides start to solidify.
- 3. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- 4. In a separate stand mixer bowl, add granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. With the whisk attachment, whisk on medium-high speed until mixture is pale yellow and thickens (approx 5 mins) - it should form ribbons when you lift the mixture.
- 5. Switch to the paddle attachment onto mixer. Once the brown butter mixture has cooled, add brown sugar and cooled brown butter to egg mixture in stand mixer. Mix on medium speed to combine.
- 6. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just barely combined, with some dry flour still remaining. Add dried cranberries, white chocolate, orange zest and orange juice. Mix for a few seconds or until well incorporated (do not overmix!)
- 7. Transfer to an airtight container or saran wrap it and refrigerate dough overnight for best results.
- 8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325°F.
- 9. Drop small spoonfuls of cookie dough onto a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until golden brown around edges but still soft, 13 to 16 minutes, rotating pans back to front and top to bottom halfway through baking.
- 10. Once done baking, allow to cool for about 15 mins before eating. Store in airtight container for optimal freshness.
