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!
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
- 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
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ⅓ cup soft coconut oil
- ½ cup cane sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon almond milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup chocolate chips*
- ⅓ cup chopped pistachios
- ⅓ cup dried cranberries
- 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.
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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.
Thank you for so many vegan recipes in this blog. I only follow a couple of non-vegan bloggers and your #1. Many blessings to you and all your loved ones. Peace and Love from upstate NY
These cookies sound great. I like the idea of adding something tart, because I’m not big on a lot of sweetness. I don’t have a problem with eating cookie dough using real eggs as long as they are from pastured hens, where the probability of disease is far less. This cookie dough sounds like it would be best raw… (that’s certainly how I would prefer it).
Any chance GF flour would work!?
I think it would be fine, especially if you kept the almond flour in here (make sure it’s certified GF). Results might depend on the brand, but if you have one that you love, it should be fine. I’ve had good results with Pamela’s flour and also a brand called Bona Dea.
Wow! These look fantastic. As a big fan of dried cranberries and any sort of nut, I’m eager to try them. Thanks!
These look delicious!
Do you use fresh cranberries in this recipe? Would dried work as well?
dried! Just fixed that, thanks!
I made these for Christmas and everyone loved them! Thank you for posting so many vegan recipes!
I’m so glad everyone loved them, thank you for sharing!
These look great! I love the natural Christmas colors. It reminds me of your chocolate bark, a staple in our house! I have a quick question about these cookies. If you don’t have almond meal on hand, is it possible to make them with all flour? Thanks!
I’m glad you like the bark!
Yep, you can use all flour – I make a similar version with a white/wheat mix but all AP would work too if that’s what you have. I usually do 1/2 cup coconut oil in that case (I did 1/3 cup here because the almond flour contains fat).
I must try these cookies soon! I love cranberry and pistachio together and have all the ingredients in the kitchen, so we’re having these real soon 🙂 Looks delicious!