White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies (small batch recipe) - Dessert for Two (2024)

Cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. Recipe makes 6 cookies.

I'm not entirely sure if it's too early to start baking with cranberries, but here were are.

Since we have a toddler, we have an extensive dried fruit section in our pantry. I'm convinced that with the right combination of dried fruit (dates, cranberries, raisins, and mango) plus ripe in-season fruit, we can keep a kid from wanting candy.

I'm currently doing a little social experiment with my kid (so normal, I swear). Since, I, Christina Lane, at age 34 have zero self-control around a bag of open candy, I'm trying to instill some self-control in my kid.

I did this by buying her a bag of her favorite candy (soft peppermints--someone gave her one as we were leaving a restaurant one day (*cough* grandma), and putting it in a clear candy dish. Then, I put the clear candy dish within her reach in the pantry. I surrounded the candy dish with our dried fruit stash, a bunch of fresh bananas and a small container of cherry tomatoes. (This reminds me: have you seen our pantry with the kid snack section?)

You would think a toddler within reach of a candy jar would clear it in a day, right? The first day, she took 2 pieces, and the next day she took 1 piece. She skipped a few days and forgot about the candy, and then settled into a routine of 1 per day. She skips days quite often, too.

I'm okay with that, you know? I don't want her to be the kid that freaks out at the sight of candy at Halloween and stuffs her face because it's a forbidden thing.

I will be the adult stuffing my face with Halloween candy, however. Pass me all of those fruit-flavored tootsie rolls and sour candy, okay? I'm too old to learn self-control! Hah!

White chocolate chip cranberry cookies:

Anyway, I used part of the bag of dried cranberries to make these cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. The recipe only makes 6 cookies, which is so perfect!

I adapted the recipe from my small-batch white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, but found that I had to add an extra tablespoon of flour. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's due to the sugar-infused dried cranberries. Sugar is a liquid ingredient in baking, and when it hits the heat of the oven, it melts and spreads. Another explanation could be different humidity levels on baking day.

Small batch baking tips:

Speaking of humidity and flour levels, a lot goes into a small-batch recipe. Since we have such few ingredients, small tweaks cause big changes. So, if you make my recipe for small batch chocolate chip cookies and it feels off to you, email me and we'll work it out! Often it just needs another tablespoon of flour. Or, you need an awesome baking sheet, a silicone mat (it retards cookie spread, in my experience), or your oven needs to be calibrated.

Dare I say that large-scale baking is slightly more forgiving than small-batch baking? I've found it to be true. If the hand-mixer flings flour out of the bowl when you turn it on, it's not such a big deal for a big recipe. When I'm baking a small recipe, I make the effort to scoop the flour off the counter and add it back in!

These cranberry white chocolate chip cookies are a must-have on your cookie tables. The recipe can absolutely be doubled or tripled to suit your needs. Small batch cookie recipes have their place in the holiday season, because sometimes you want a sampling of every type of Christmas cookie. And if every cookie recipe makes 4 dozen cookies, well, that will effect your New Year's Resolution to diet, right?

Small batch cookie recipes for life. I don't know any other way to live!

Recipe substitutions for white chocolate cranberry cookies:

Ok, since a few of you will ask: you can use sweetened or unsweetened cranberries for your cookies. Sweetened cranberries are typically more authentic. Also, be sure to seek out real white chocolate chips. Real white chocolate is made with actual cocoa butter; fake white chocolate is made with oil instead of cocoa butter. Always choose real white chocolate!