Healthy & Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Up your Christmas cookie game with these soft baked white chocolate and cranberry cookies. These are made in a healthier way with the use of whole wheat flour and organic coconut sugar. The combination of white chocolate chips and orange flavored dried cranberries is worth trying. These are the best soft and healthy homemade holiday cookies ever!
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It’s raining cookies here. Well, why not? It’s Christmas time!! Yes, the holiday season has begun, and so with it, the holiday baking too. This is the time when the ovens become our best friends, and baking treats back to back is enjoyed, as much as eating the savory and sweet treats that are baked.
The house feels warmer with the oven temperatures soaring, and also, you are mesmerized with the smell of wonderful spices getting into all the cookies, cakes, pies and muffins. Not to forget the famous Pumpkin Pie Spice. The aroma of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg suddenly becomes a part of almost every household. It’s my favorite time of the year.
Well, the Christmas tree is up, and the lights are shining bright. Today I am baking one of my favorite recipes. I’ll mention it again, as I did with many of my last published recipes, that I have tried these cookies multiple times, but never could they reach the blog. Reasons galore, I didn’t shoot when I was baking these, and other times, when I wanted to shoot these for the blog, I didn’t have all the ingredients.
But yes, today I made them specifically to share on the blog, as the start of the holiday season. The first batch of Christmas cookies coming out of the oven. Let’s talk more about these White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies now.
How do we make the healthy and soft White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies?
I am revisiting my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe to make these soft baked cookies. Since I had got the perfect texture with those healthy homemade cookies that I had baked, so I have been adapting the same recipe for many of my future bakes. This one is no exception.
The cookies are made in a healthy way by using a combination of whole wheat flour and organic coconut sugar. Here is a summary of the method for baking these healthy chocolate cranberry cookies.
Method (Step by step – with Pictures)
- Mix the butter and coconut sugar till everything is completely blended. Add in the egg and vanilla extract to the above and again mix everything together.
- Mix whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the wet mixture and swirl everything together to form an even cookie dough.
- Add in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to the cookie dough and mix again. It is advisable to put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Take around 1 – 2 tablespoon of cookie dough in your hands, form a ball and flatten a little. I was able to make 15 cookies with the prepared dough.
- Bake the cookies for around 10-14 minutes in the preheated oven, or till you see creases on top of the cookies. The cookies will be soft to touch, but once cooled, they will be fine. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for at least 5-10 minutes.
- Serve warm or store in an air-tight container for around a week.
Substitutions & Tips
- Whole Wheat Flour – Feel free to replace whole wheat flour with the same quantity of all-purpose flour. If the cookie dough feels a little loose, add ~ 1/4th cup more of all-purpose flour.
- Sweetener – You can even use jaggery powder or unrefined cane sugar in place of coconut sugar. These alternatives provide healthier form of sweetener to the cookies. But, if none of these is available, you can even go ahead and use regular white sugar.
- Egg – To make the recipe eggless, I would advise to replace the egg with either of these two options:
- Chia Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Chia seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)
- Flax Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Flax seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)
- Vanilla Extract – If you want to be a little more adventurous, you can try substituting the vanilla extract with brandy for more festive touch.
- White chocolate chips – These seem irreplaceable in the recipe, but you can definitely add a combination of half white chocolate chips and half macadamia nuts or some other nuts, instead of all white chocolate chips here.
NOTE – For eggless version, powdered flax/chia seeds are preferred. But if not available, you can use whole seeds for soaking!
Also, continuing the tradition, here comes the 58th recipe under My Julie & Julia Project. For those who don’t know, I had started this project under which I had planned to post 100 recipes from my kitchen by the end of the year 2020. So, this is the Recipe #58 for you all.
2020 is almost over, it has been a difficult year for most of us. The pandemic has taken a toll on our lives. But, I guess that’s what life is. I don’t think the project will reach to completion this year. We all had our fair share of priorities to choose over others in this lock-down phase, so did I. In the end, all I would say is, cheers to surviving this, and hoping for a wonderful new year.
Recipe creation has become a part and parcel of my life now, so no matter what, it will continue to be the most important part in this blogging journey. If you love this journey of mine, I want to express my deepest gratitude. Thank you so much for supporting me, it means a lot! Also, I have attempted a video recipe for the first time, which starts my journey of YouTube channel. Please do check out the video and subscribe to my channel. You can even connect with me on Facebook and Instagram.
If you like this recipe, do check out these soft Christmas special Funfetti cookies, which are not only healthy, but indeed a hit with the kids as well. Let’s get going to the white chocolate chip cranberry cookies recipe!
Healthy & Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Butter unsalted, softened
- 3/4 cup Organic coconut sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups Whole wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/2 cup White chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup Dried cranberries I am using Trader Joe's orange flavored dried cranberries
Instructions
- Mix the butter and coconut sugar till everything is completely blended.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract to the above and again mix everything together.
- Mix whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to the wet mixture and swirl everything together to form an even cookie dough.
- Add in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to the cookie dough and mix again. It is advisable to put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 375 degree F. Take around 1 – 2 tablespoon of cookie dough in your hands, form a ball and flatten a little. I was able to make 15 cookies with the prepared dough.
- Bake the cookies for around 10-14 minutes in the preheated oven, or till you see creases on top of the cookies. The cookies will be soft to touch, but once cooled, they will be fine. Remove the cookies from the oven, and allow them to cool for at least 5-10 minutes.
- The Healthy & Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies are now ready to be served warm, or these can also be stored in an air-tight container for around a week.
Video
Notes
- Whole Wheat Flour – Feel free to replace whole wheat flour with the same quantity of all-purpose flour. If the cookie dough feels a little loose, add ~ 1/4th cup more of all-purpose flour.
- Sweetener – You can even use jaggery powder or unrefined cane sugar in place of coconut sugar. These alternatives provide healthier form of sweetener to the cookies. But, if none of these is available, you can even go ahead and use regular white sugar.
- Egg – To make the recipe eggless, I would advise to replace the egg with either of these two options:
- Chia Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Chia seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)
- Flax Seed Gel (Mix 1 Tbsp powdered Flax seeds with 3 Tbsp water, and let it soak for 5 minutes)
- Vanilla Extract – If you want to be a little more adventurous, you can try substituting the vanilla extract with brandy for more festive touch.
- White chocolate chips – These seem irreplaceable in the recipe, but you can definitely add a combination of half white chocolate chips and half macadamia nuts or some other nuts, instead of all white chocolate chips here.
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