Spiced Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies

Disclosure: OXO sent me an illuminating hand mixer, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.

Today, I went to our local party/baking supply store to stock up on holiday gift packaging. I honestly can’t believe it’s December. I know I say that a lot, but the whole house building process has just thrown me off, time-wise. My life is measured by the house countdown, because well…I’m pretty darn excited about it!

This year, I’m not going to do my usual bake-palooza. Since we live with relatives while the house is being built, I just don’t feel right taking over their entire kitchen for a full weekend (which is what I usually do). I’m going to scale back and make some candy (fudge, caramels), as well as these cookies.

I love the combination of dried cranberries with white chocolate. The chewy, tart berries, combined with sweet white chocolate works so well together, and to top these cookies off, I rolled part of the dough in a cinnamon/sugar combination to add a little crunchiness to the cookies. When I brought these to work, I kept getting compliments on how great they tasted, which made me think that I definitely have to make these again for holiday gifts. 🙂

To make these cookies, I put away the stand mixer and used OXO’s Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer.

While I love using my stand mixer for baking, this hand mixer is pretty awesome. It worked like a dream when I was mixing this cookie dough, and the illuminating feature is something I would have never thought was handy until I used it. I also love the digital control….it’s a simple up or down button to change the speed of the mixer. OXO also took care to make sure that storage was a cinch. The cord wraps around the unit, and there’s a special cap for you to snap the beaters into. It just goes neatly into the cabinet, which is a nice added touch (at least it is to me). I’m definitely going to use this hand mixer more often, especially for quicker baking recipes like this one!

Spiced Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Source: an original

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 12 tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

For rolling:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Using a mixer in a large bowl, mix the butter and sugars together until well-mixed. Beat in the egg/egg yolk and vanilla extract until well-mixed.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and mix on low until just combined. Using a spoon or spatula, mix in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.
5. Mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl for rolling. Roll the dough into balls (about 2 tbsp. in size) and dip one half of each dough ball into the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
6. Place each dough ball on a cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart, with the un-sugared side down. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are starting to brown, being sure to turn the pans halfway through the baking process. After the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, transfer the cookies to fully cool on a cooling rack. Enjoy!