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These white chocolate cranberry orange cookies are the perfect holiday cookie and beyond. A special ingredient adds a soft chewiness to these cookies while enhancing the flavor: white chocolate pudding mix! A pop of citrus from orange zest and extract–these are the cookies that will win the cookie exchange, no doubt!
Why We Love These
Kicking off my “Pudding Perfect” recipe series with these super soft and chewy, and not to mention white chocolate chip and cranberry loaded citrus cookies!
This series includes six holiday treats that start with a box of instant pudding, but turn into the perfect, festive and delicious desserts. Can’t wait to share them all!
These white chocolate cranberry orange cookies:
- have double the white chocolate flavor from both the white chocolate chips and the white chocolate pudding mix
- have the perfect pop of citrus flavor from both fresh orange zest and a touch of orange extract
- are extra soft and chewy, and stay that way thanks to the pudding mix
- can be enjoyed as a Christmas cookie or any time of year as the flavor easily works well for any occasion
Try these other favorite cookie recipes: Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies, Brownie Crinkle Cookies
Why Add Pudding Mix?
Adding instant pudding mix does a lot more than just adding extra flavor to your cookies. The cornstarch in the mix absorbs moisture which helps make the cookies denser and chewier. The cookies also stay softer for longer when you add the pudding. Lots of perks just from adding the little box of goodness.
Ingredient Notes
- Make sure to get instant pudding mix for these white chocolate cranberry orange cookies. The cook and serve pudding does not work. If you are unable to get the white chocolate flavor, you can use the vanilla, French vanilla or even the cheesecake flavor!
- When zesting the orange, be sure to avoid getting any of the white from the peel. This will add a bitter taste to the cookies.
- Orange extract can be strong so if you don’t want the orange flavor to become too overpowering, start with just a quarter teaspoon of it and then add more. If you don’t have any, you can just use a touch more vanilla extract or omit it.
Ways To Vary This Recipe
- use a combo of white chocolate chips and chopped white chocolate. These cookies look super pretty with a couple pieces of chopped white chocolate pressed into them!
- vary the instant pudding to change up the overall flavor
- add some nuts: chopped pecans, walnuts, etc.
- drizzle melted white chocolate over top of the baked cookies
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Whisk flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt together in medium bowl.
Step 2: In a separate bowl, beat the sugars and butter to cream on medium high for about 2-3 minutes until uniform, light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, vanilla and orange extracts and orange zest.
Step 3: Beat the mixture until incorporated.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients into the wet about a third at a time and beat only until combined and no flour streaks.
Step 5: Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries.
Step 6: For best results, chill cookie dough at least 30 minutes, but ideally approximately an hour.
Step 7: Scoop chilled cookie dough into about 1 ½ inch balls (or use a 1 ½ tbsp cookie scoop) and arrange 2 inches apart on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. You can press in extra cranberries before baking, but don’t add any white chocolate chips on top until after as they can dry out and get burned on top.
Step 8: Bake in preheated oven for 9-11 minutes or until edges are set and very slightly golden. We prefer to ever so slightly under bake these, but bake to your preference! Use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to scoot the cookies into perfect circles and press more white chocolate chips and cranberries into the tops of cookies.
Recipe Tips
Chill the dough! This recipe is best once you have chilled the dough. I don’t recommend skipping this part for the best texture and not too much cookie spread overall.
Cream the butter and sugars sufficiently. Not creaming the butter and sugar enough can cause the cookies to be too dense in the end or vary flat and spread out.
Make sure your butter isn’t too warm. This can set your cookies up for failure from the onset. Using butter that is too warm can keep the butter from being able to trap little air bubbles which in turn makes for the optimal cookie texture. Room temperature butter will still have an internal temperature of about 65°-67°F.
Storage
These white chocolate orange cranberry cookies keep in an airtight container for about 4-5 days at room temperature. They are still fairly soft and don’t dry out even around the 3-4 day mark.
To Freeze: Cookies that have completely cooled can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months in a freezer safe container. You can also freeze cookie dough for 3 months. If freezing cookie dough, I suggest rolling it into balls before freezing. You can bake from frozen, just add an extra minute or two to bake time.
More Cookie Recipes
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White Chocolate Cranberry Orange Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups flour, (282g)
- 3.4 oz box instant white chocolate pudding
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened, (226 g)
- ¾ plus 1 Tbsp light brown sugar, (178g)
- ¼ cup sugar, (50 g)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ – ½ tsp orange extract
- zest of one navel orange, (about 1 tbsp)
- 1 ¾ cup white chocolate chips, (this was an 11 oz. bag of Ghirardelli white chips, the bag is about 1¾ cups, more for topping)
- 1 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a separate bowl, beat the sugars and butter to cream on medium high for about 2-3 minutes until uniform, light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, extracts and orange zest and beat to incorporate.
- Slowly add the dry ingredient mixture and beat only until combined and no flour streaks. Fold in the white chocolate chips and cranberries.
- For best results, chill at least 30 minutes and up to about 1 hour.
- Once chilled, scoop into about 1 ½ inch balls (or use a 1 ½ tbsp cookie scoop) and arrange 2 inches apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. You can press in extra cranberries before baking, but don’t add any white chocolate chips on top until after as they can dry out and get burned on top.
- Bake in preheated 350°F oven for 9-11 minutes or until edges are set and very slightly golden. We like to slightly under bake these, but bake to your preference! Use a biscuit cutter or round cookie cutter to shift baked cookies into nice circles if you'd like and press more white chocolate and cranberries into the tops of the cookies.
- Cool for several minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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