White Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

Gotta give the people what they want, and the people have spoken: more pumpkin. I love pumpkin cookies, but always find it challenging to get a good cookie consistency when using pumpkin. But I think I’ve finally created the perfect pumpkin cookie with these White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies. These cookies are chewy, but not cakey and are bursting with the sweet flavors of pumpkin, cranberries and white chocolate. So if you’re looking for the perfect pumpkin and chocolate cookie, look no further than this recipe.

Pumpkin and chocolate is a great combo. Well, anything and chocolate is a great combination in my opinion. When it comes to pumpkin, I always tend to use white chocolate instead of milk or semi-sweet chocolate in my recipes. It just seems to be the best fit. White chocolate adds a sweet and creamy flavor that really compliments the pumpkin spice.

I always jam pack my pumpkin recipes with dried cranberries whenever I get the chance. Growing up we used to go pumpkin picking at this giant farm in southern Connecticut called Jones’ Tree Farm. The rules were you could pick any pumpkin you wanted, as long as you could carry it all the way back to the car. Just like with desserts, our eyes were always bigger than what our arms wanted to carry, but we still would try to get the biggest one possible. At the end of pumpkin picking, we would get the Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies from Jone’s Tree Farm that were bigger than your head, and packed with cranberries. That was the inspiration for this treat, but of course I needed to make it my own with white chocolate.

We’d always carve our pumpkins within a few days of getting them. I’m always impressed with the cool designs people are able to carve. I was a simplistic pumpkin decorator, due to a pure lack of any artistic ability. Triangles for eyes. An upside-down triangle nose. And a big toothy smile. And if you grew up in Connecticut you knew you’d have to take your pumpkins in on October 30th for Mischief Night. Apparently that is only a Connecticut thing, because when I moved to Boston and told my friends we couldn’t go out on the 30th because of mischief night, they looked at me like I was crazy! Did anyone else grow up experiencing mischief night?

Back to the cookies. One thing that I did differently with these pumpkin cookies to make them a little firmer was adding in a tablespoon of corn starch into the batter. I’ve found cornstarch definitely helps to thicken up dough when you have moist ingredients like syrup or puree. The cornstarch combined with chilling the dough for at least 30 minutes seems to really do the trick to get a more traditional cookie dough texture that makes it easy to use your cookie scoop with. 

The oats definitely help too in keeping this cookie together, plus oats are a staple in fall-baking for me. So the next time you’re looking to try your hand at a delicious pumpkin cookie recipe, look no further than these  White Chocolate Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies. Enjoy!

White Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Cookies

Yield: 30 Large Cookies

Prep Time: 45 Minutes (Includes Chilling time)

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Total Time: 1 Hour

A perfect combination of fall flavors, these cookies are packed with pumpkin, cranberries and sweet white chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups pumpkin puree
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon corn starch
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix well. Mix in the pumpkin puree until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding the dry ingredients.
  2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cornstarch and baking soda. Mix in the oats. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet batter while mixing on a low speed just until they are incorporated.
  3. Fold in the white chocolate chips and dried cranberries, saving a few extra to top the cookies with. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a sil-pat or parchment-lined baking sheet, use a medium cookie scoop to place oversized balls of cookie dough at least two inches apart. Press the cookies down with your fingers, and top with some leftover chocolate chips and cranberries. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-14 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden.
  5. Let the cookies sit on the tray when you remove from the oven to finish setting. Use a spatula to carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. These cookies will be a little cake-like in texture so may stick a bit to the pan. Enjoy!