These cranberry cookies are soft, chewy, and warmly spiced. They're perfect for the holiday season, but they're so delicious that I make them year-round!
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These cranberry cookies are a more festive version of my favorite thing to bake: chocolate chip cookies! With Christmas just one week away, I wanted to share a fun holiday cookie recipe, but I wasn’t in the mood for sugar cookies or gingerbread. Nope, true to form, I wanted soft, chewy cookies that were generously studded with chocolate chips. I didn’t think that classic chocolate chip cookies really counted as a holiday treat, so I jazzed them up to make these cranberry cookies instead.
I have to say, I’m thrilled with how they came out! I spiced them with cinnamon for warm, cozy flavor. And in addition to the cranberries, I tossed in pistachios to create a festive mix of red and green. They’re sweet, nutty, and chocolatey, with a little tang from the cranberries. In short, they’re everything I crave in a sweet treat. I think you’ll love them too!
Cranberry Cookies Recipe Ingredients
Oh, and did I mention? These cranberry cookies are totally vegan. I use flaxseed instead of eggs and sub coconut oil for butter. If you’re skeptical, trust me here. These guys are just as sweet, soft, and satisfying as any traditional cookies. Care to find out for yourself? Here’s what else you’ll need to make them:
- All-purpose flour and almond flour – I LOVE using this combination in baking, as it yields really soft, moist baked goods. You’ll find it in my vegan sugar cookies, banana bread, and blueberry muffins too!
- Baking soda – It helps them puff up in the oven.
- Cinnamon – Who doesn’t love cinnamon in a holiday treat? It gives these cookies a warm, festive flavor.
- Cane sugar and brown sugar – They sweeten the cookies and help create their soft, chewy texture.
- Almond milk – I just add a splash for extra moisture. Cow’s milk or my homemade oat milk would work here too!
- Vanilla extract – For warm depth of flavor.
- Chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and pistachios – The mix-ins! Their varied colors, textures, and tastes make these cookies festive and fun to eat.
- And sea salt – To make all the flavors pop!
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Cranberry Cookies
You don’t need to chill the dough in this cranberry cookie recipe (phew, am I right?!), so it’s fairly quick to make. Here’s how it goes:
First, combine the flaxseed with water in the bowl of stand mixer. Set it aside to thicken. In the meantime, whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate mixing bowl.
Then, you’ll return to the stand mixer. Add the remaining wet ingredients, and mix on high until well-combined. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the mixer, mixing on low after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
When a cohesive dough forms, add the mix-ins, and fold them in with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
Next, use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Finally, bake! Transfer the baking sheet to a 350° oven, and bake until the cookies are lightly golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool completely.
That’s it!
Cranberry Cookies Variations
I love these cranberry cookies as they are, but feel free to change them up if you’d like. If you’re craving a traditional cranberry white chocolate chip cookie, swap white chocolate for the chocolate chips and replace the pistachios with macadamia nuts. Chopped pecans would be fantastic here too.
More Favorite Holiday Treats
If you love these cranberry cookies, try one of these delicious treats next:
- Perfect Oatmeal Cookies
- Best Peanut Butter Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Tahini Cookies
- Lemon Shortbread Cookies
- Healthy Hot Chocolate
- Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
Cranberry Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons warm water
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/3 cup soft coconut oil
- ½ cup cane sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chocolate chips*
- 1/3 cup chopped pistachios
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bottom of a stand mixer's bowl, combine the flaxseed and water. Whisk (by hand) and set aside to thicken for 5 minutes and whisk again.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- To the mixer’s bowl, add the coconut oil, cane sugar, brown sugar, almond milk and vanilla. Mix on high until well combined.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing on low after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chips, cranberries, pistachios.
- Use a 2-inch cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the baking sheet. Bake 12-13 minutes or until lightly golden brown. (If using a 1-inch scoop, bake 10 minutes). Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.
Notes
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Made these for a Christmas cookie exchange- l used the 1” scoop to stretch the recipe ( l doubled it)- turned out great! Finished with a dark chocolate drizzle and topped with more chopped pistachios
Hello! would it be possible to use fresh cranberries instead of dried cranberries in these cookies?
Hi Patricia, I’m not sure if they’d turn out too watery. If you’re looking for a way to use extra fresh cranberries, I’d recommend this bread: https://www.loveandlemons.com/cranberry-orange-bread/
Wondering if this recipe works without the flaxseed, and if I would need to substitute something?
I used an egg instead and it worked fine
We made these cookies last night, they are fantastic! Really happy to have found your site and we are looking forward to trying your other recipes. Take good care, and thanks again for a great cookie!
So glad you enjoyed the cookies, Melissa! I hope you find some more recipes you love.
I just made these cookies last night since I already had pistachios and cranberries on hand. I used white chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips. It was my first time making cookies and I really enjoyed them! The mix ins work really well together and they have the perfect amount of sweetness. Great cookies for the holiday. I can’t wait to make them again for my family when I go to visit! Thank you for the recipe.
Hi! Can we use a hand held mixer? And, GF flour?
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I’m not eating cookies any longer, but I saved the recipe because it sounded so good. What I ended up doing with it is making it into overnight oats, which turned out to be very nice (that has now become my go-to solution for wonderful cookie recipes). For next time I think I would add just a little bit of candied ginger, because the oats need a little more “life” than a cookie. Thanks for a great recipe.
Hi Susan, I love the idea of making overnight oats with cookie toppings, what a delicious way to have a bit of a sweet treat 🙂
Love the combination of cranberry and pistachio, sometimes we like to mix in a bit of cardamom as well.
Wow. Now this is exactly what my kids need!
Thank you!
Otto
Delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jeanine! Can I use Stevia (powder) instead of sugar? In case it is possible, in wich proportion?
Thank you! =)
Hi Jocy, the powder would not be a 1:1 replacement because it would change the texture pretty significantly. However, I’d recommend using Truvia’s baking blend – it’s a mix of stevia plus some regular sugar (altogether much lower in sugar than normal sugar). You can use the same amount and the texture should come out fine.
Hope that helps!
Thank you so much Jeanine! ?
thanks for this post.
wow!!! This recipe looks so nice, I like all the images of your post, especially Love your food photography as well!!
thank you!!
Amazing cookies!
GoMovies
I can’t eat coconut. Can I use olive oil or some other type of oil ? Thank you, making these tomorrow.
Hi Claire, you can use butter or olive oil.
Thank you, they are delicious !
Looks SO good and SO festive!
Can an egg be used instead of the flax meal? If so, how many eggs? Thanks! These look great!
Hi Carolyn, 2 eggs… don’t add the water, and don’t add the 1 tablespoon of almond milk.
Love the way you write about different recipes ….and your food always look delicious
Oh, thank you!
Love the added crunch of the pistacios! These look absolutely amazing! So nice for the holidays.