Elevate your oats with these irresistible Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies! Each tasty cookie has crisp golden edges, a deliciously chewy center, and is loaded with mix-ins like chocolate chips, white chocolate, and cranberries!
I’ve been making cookies out of leftover granola for ages now and wanted an option for straight up old fashioned rolled oats too. I’m LOVING this recipe!
These chocolate chip studded cranberry oatmeal cookies have edges reminiscent of crispy golden freshly baked granola with an amazing chewy center. The trio of mix-ins add texture and flavor and will have your friends an family coming back for more!
When baked the edges get crisp and nutty like fresh baked granola while the centers of these cookies stay deliciously chewy with little bursts of chocolate flavor in between. My family adores them!
As I write this post I’m on day 3 of my most recent batch and can report they’re STILL awesome even a few days later! After a crazy late night it was just the little pick-me-up I needed with my morning coffee.
Let’s dive into the delicious details, shall we?
I love that the ingredients for these cookies are super simple and typical fridge and pantry staples that many of us always have on hand. It doesn’t hurt that they taste amazing too!
Cookie Ingredients
- old fashioned rolled oats
- all-purpose flour
- dried cranberries
- semi sweet chocolate chips
- white chocolate chips
- unsalted butter
- light brown sugar
- granulated sugar
- large egg
- ground cinnamon
- baking powder
- baking soda
- fine sea salt
- pure vanilla extract
I adore the combination of chewy dried cranberries with chocolate and white chocolate chips. If preferred, you can absolutely use raisins in place of the cranberries or skip the dried fruit in favor of extra chocolate chips. Let your taste buds be your guide!
Buttery spreads will not work in this recipe so be sure to use real butter for proper results.
Q: What kind of chocolate should I use?
For this recipe I used 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup white chocolate chips.
Want more white chocolate than regular? You can change up the ratio to suit your tastes. The chocolate is crazy flexible to taste so feel free to use all white chocolate or all semi-sweet (or even bittersweet) chocolate chips.
Q: Can I make these cookies gluten-free?
You sure can! I made a recent batch of these with extra chocolate in place of the cranberries (per the kiddo’s request) and my go-to Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour and they were absolutely delicious! This particular flour blend was completely interchangeable with the all purpose flour and we didn’t notice a difference at all.
Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
This rockin’ recipe yields 17 cookies. I used a large 3 TBSP capacity cookie scoop to easily portion out the dough and for even baking. 3 tablespoons of dough will yield 3.5-4 inch cookies.
If using smaller scoops of dough, bake time will need to be reduced For smaller cookies, check for doneness at the 9 minute mark and keep an eye on them from there.
Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (120 grams)
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 1 stick unsalted butter (113 grams) softened to room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar (100 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats (160 grams) gluten-free certified
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup white chocolate chips
FOR GLUTEN-FREE COOKIES
- 1 cup Gluten-Free Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour (148 grams) in place of all-purpose flour
Instructions
INGREDIENT PREP
- Set out butter and egg to reach room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix well and set aside.
MAKE THE DOUGH
- Using a stand mixer (or an electric hand mixer and a large mixing bowl) Cream softened butter together with both sugars. Beat until fluffy and well incorporated, approx. 2 minutes.
- Next beat in egg and vanilla on low speed until fully mixed and smooth.
- With mixer still running, gradually add the flour mixture until incorporated.
- Next add oats, chocolate chip, and dried cranberries and set mixer to low, allowing the mixer to stir together your ingredients for 10 seconds or until the mix-ins have been mostly distributed. Use a spoon to stir in any loose oats. Dough will be very thick.
- Use a 3 TBSP cookie scoop to measure out 17 scoops of dough.
- Arrange scoops of dough on a parchment lined baking sheet spaced 2.5 inches apart to allow the cookies adequate room to spread. Use a flat bottomed measuring cup to gently press each scoop of dough into a 2-inch diameter disc. approx. ¾ inch thick. (see post for photos)
- TIP: place remaining cookie dough scoops on a plate in fridge between batches for less spreading.
LET'S BAKE SOME COOKIES!
- Place baking sheet on the center rack and bake cookies until the cookies are slightly puffed and the edges are lightly golden, about 14-15 minutes. Cookies will spread to approx 3.5-4 inches diameter.
- For perfectly round cookies, you can use a small bowl or large round cookie/biscuit cutter to scoot any uneven cookies into shape. Do this while the cookies are fresh from the oven and still on the baking sheet. Simply place over the cookie you want to reshape and run along edges in a circle.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes before serving.
- Allowing them to fully cool will yield a chewy center and crisp granola-like edges. Delish!
- Bake remaining cookies, either using a fresh parchment lined baking sheet right away or waiting until cookies have fully cooled to bake the next round of cookies.
- Store leftover cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3-4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Cookie recipe adapted from Giada De Laurentiis.
More Awesome Oat Recipes
- Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
- Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
- Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
- Chocolate Chip Granola
If you get a chance to try these Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies, let me know!
Leave me a comment here (LOVE checking those daily!) or tag @PEASandCRAYONS on Instagram so I can happy dance over your tasty creations.
Questions & Reviews
This is a pretty versatile recipe. I’ve made them several times, each time with different add-ins. A fav with the kids is candied orange/citrus peel in place of the cranberries, with dark chocolate chunks. I like dried apple chunks with maple flavouring instead of the vanilla, and no chocolate. Hubby likes raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and pecans. This recipe can stand a bit of reduction of sugar without affecting the consistency. They are all good! I make them half the size and freeze.
Thanks for hopping back over to review the recipe, Corinne! Loving all your mix-ins for these cookies and I have GOT to try the maple apple combo – that sounds heavenly! 😃
Yes the batter is very dry and hard to hold together but do not be deterred !! These are awesome just as is. My only change was using all semisweet and no white chocolate. I was very nervous but chose to continue and made large cookies. Just roll tight and flatten a bit. Perfectly cooked at 15 minutes and wait until cool to devour 😀
Seems pretty dry.
Recipe calls for one egg but instructions for mixing says to mix in eggs
I’m thinking that 2 eggs should hav3 been used.
Hope these turn out.
I just took the cookies out of the oven. I haven’t tried one yet but they didn’t come together as I thought they would.
The next bunch of cookie dough I made tight balls, about 1.5 -2″.
They rolled up just ok.
Well see if that worked.
I still think 2 eggs are the way to go.
Hi Gordy! Happy to help troubleshoot if needed! You are welcome to use 2 eggs if the eggs you are using are a little on the smaller size or if you prefer a different texture/result. These are intended to have a chewy oatmeal center and crisp almost granola-like edges once cooled.
Can these be frozen for later?
Hi Sandra! I haven’t tested freezing with these particular cookies yet so if you get a chance to try it out before I do, let me know? I’ve seen quite a few websites say you can freeze oatmeal cookies once baked and cooled.
The whole family loved these cookies. Soft and they have a creamy flavor.
Thank you for this recipe. They are delicious.
Thank you Maureen! I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe!
Yum
Delicious! I ran out of oats and used 1 cup wheat bran and couldn’t tell.
Yay thank you!!
Chewy easy and yummy. I eliminated white chips (didn’t have any) so added 1/2 cup walnuts and only had quick oats. Even forgot the salt snd they were still great! Always wondered why folks modified recipes, its what you have in the house and how well once follows a recipe.
So happy to hear they were a hit! Thanks Linda!
These cookies are everything that I wanted and more! thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe!
So glad you enjoyed them! Thanks Jess!