Cranberry Cookies made with white chocolate, and cream cheese are melt in your mouth delicious, and everything a cookie should be. Your cookie aficionados will love the crispy edges and the delectable combination of tart cranberries and creamy white chocolate.
Add the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
With the mixer on low, add the sugar and flour and mix well, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula.
Add the cranberries, white chocolate chips, and pecans. Mix on low until combined
Use a small (1-½ inch) ice cream scoop to form round balls (about the size of a golf ball) with the cookie dough and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are just starting to get lightly browned around the edges. Don't overbake them. The cookies will still look pale and undone, but they are done.
Let cool on the baking sheet for five minutes, then use a spatula to transfer to a wire rack to cool completely carefully. The cookies will firm up when they are completely cooled.
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Notes
You can make the dough and store it covered in the refrigerator for up to three days. Then, let it come to room temperature before forming it into balls and baking.Baked cookies will stay fresh if stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. I like to store them in a single layer separated with a piece of wax or parchment paper.To freeze the cookie dough, make the cookies up to the point of forming them into balls. Then, store the unbaked cookie dough balls in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow the dough to thaw before baking.The cookie dough in this recipe is extremely dense and thick, and unless you have arms of steel, it works best to combine the ingredients using a powerful electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Do not use a whisk attachment as it's not strong enough.Dried cherries or blueberries can be substituted for dried cranberries.Room temperature butter and cream cheese are essential in this recipe. Depending on your room temperature, it can take one to two hours for butter to come to room temperature. If you want to speed things up a bit, try these tips to soften butter quickly from Sally's Baking Addiction. However, butter that is too soft or melted will cause your cookies to spread, so don't go overboard. If it's too cold, it will not mix evenly with the other ingredients.To bring the cream cheese to room temperature, remove the foil wrapper and place the cream cheese block on a microwave-safe plate—microwave on high for 15 seconds.If your pecans are not roasted, check out my post on roasted pecans, to find out how to roast them in the oven. To quickly roast a small number of chopped pecans for this recipe, place them in an even layer on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on high for one to three minutes, stirring occasionally. Start tasting after one minute.You can substitute toasted walnuts or other nuts for roasted pecans.Although delicious, these cranberry cookies are somewhat fragile and are not suitable for mailing or shipping.