Recipe: Cranberry White Chocolate Walnut Cookies

Sweet white chocolate and juicy tart cranberries are a wonderfully classic combination! These cookies are quick & easy, made with basic pantry staples! Perfect for the upcoming holidays (or a regular weekday) when you're sweet tooth has a craving!

Extra chewy and soft, be ready to grab a big glass of milk for this delicious holiday cookie! Whether you're an experienced baker or just stepping into the kitchen, we've made this recipe super easy to follow. Impress guests this season with your skills but be sure to make an extra batch to keep for yourself -you'll thank us later!

Tips:

Brown Sugar > White Sugar: Using brown sugar will result in a denser, moister cookie. Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough. The difference is in the molasses that makes brown sugar brown: It adds moisture and slight acidity, resulting in a moist and chewy texture!
Melted Butter: When you melt the butter, water in the butter will dissolve the sugar, resulting in cookies that are tender and flat. In most cookie recipes, you are instructed to cream room-temperature butter and sugar together. This is because mixing the butter and sugar granules creates air pockets in the dough, which results in puffier cookies.
Chill the Dough: If you plan ahead, take the time to chill your dough for a full day! Chilling cookie dough before baking solidifies the fat in the cookies. As the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less cookies spread. In addition, the sugar in the dough gradually absorbs liquid.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup Ferris Dried Cranberries

1 cup Ferris Walnuts, chopped

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 Farenheit.
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl: Flour, Baking Soda, Salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, use a mixer to combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, and melted (cooled, not hot) butter until well mixed.
Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix well. Scrape down sides and mix again. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Fold in Ferris Dried Cranberries, Ferris walnuts and White chocolate chips.
Roll out cookies in balls, portioning out about 2 tablespoons of dough. Place one a baking pan lined with parchment or lightly greased.
Bake for 15 minutes, remove and let cool for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack.

Get Creative!

These cookies are super versatile, which means you can customize them to your tastes! Here's our favorite ways to switch up the flavor profile:

Nuts: We used Walnuts for their great airy crunch, but we're also big fans of Pecans for their sweetness or give Peanuts a try for their classic flavor. We've even experimented with our Lush Gourmet nuts, which are kettle-cooked and coated with seasonings. Try out the Original Peanuts or get wild with our Chai Spice Cashews.
Fruit: The recipe calls for Cranberries, but we can't lie that we are big fans of Michigan-grown Cherries for their tart, juicy profile that burst on your taste buds with every bite.
Chocolate: You can use chips like the recipe calls for, you can switch up milk, white, or dark chocolate (depending on what you are pairing with.) Or add a surprise and delight in every bite if you combined the fruit and chocolate with covered-raisins like Chocolate Raisins or Yogurt-covered Raisins!