These White Chocolate Cranberry Lemon Cookies are soft, buttery, and bursting with zesty lemon, chewy cranberries, and creamy white chocolate!
I got the idea for this recipe from store-bought packaged cookies! As soon as I tasted them, my creative juices started flowing and I started imagining how I could recreate these cookies myself!
Based on experience, I knew that instant lemon pudding mix is a great way to add lemon flavor to baking without using a ton of artificial lemon extract. I use lemon pudding mix to help flavor my lemon cranberry muffins and these tasty zucchini lemon poppyseed muffins. We still use some lemon extract in this recipe, but most of the lemon flavor comes from the pudding mix and some fresh lemon zest!
Fold in some chewy and tart dried cranberries and white chocolate chips and voila! You have a cranberry white chocolate lemon cookie!
My Oreo Pistachio Pudding Cookies and Eggnog White Chocolate Chip Cookies are also made with pudding mix!
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⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe
- Bright flavour. I love the sunshine and brightness of these cookies thanks to the vibrant lemon flavor and fruity cranberries.
- Irresistibly soft and tender. The lemon pudding mix in these cookies helps to make them ultra-soft in texture.
- Quick recipe. This recipe does not require any chilling time for the dough which means you can have fresh-baked cookies in under 30 minutes!
🧈 Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to make these white chocolate cranberry lemon cookies.
- Butter - The butter needs to be softened to room temperature so that it will incorporate properly. Add ½ teaspoon of salt to the recipe if using unsalted butter.
- Lemon Pudding Mix - A box of instant lemon pudding mix adds tons of flavor and makes these cookies extra soft and chewy.
- Lemon Zest - Please don't skip the zest! You need the zest of one lemon.
- Cranberries - I like to chop up the dried cranberries into small pieces for these cookies but you could leave them whole.
- White Chocolate - You could use chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips.
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with measurements.
📃 Instructions
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter, sugars, and lemon pudding mix.
Step 2: Add the eggs, lemon zest, lemon extract, and vanilla extract.
Step 3: Cream until smooth and fluffy.
Step 4: Add the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Step 5: Add the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
Step 6: Roll into uniform balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Top with extra cranberries and white chocolate.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly golden around the edges. Let each batch cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
💡 Top Tip
Be sure to start with butter that is softened to room temperature. Not cold and not melted at all. If the butter is too soft, the cookies will spread too much. If the butter is too hard, it will not mix into the smooth dough smoothly.
❓ Recipe FAQs
Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 2 months.
No. The sugar, thickener, and flavoring in the pudding mix make up an integral part of the texture and flavor of this cookie recipe. There is no substitute for the pudding mix.
I have not tested this recipe using fresh cranberries so I cannot speak to this matter with a full understanding. Fresh cranberries carry a lot more moisture than dried cranberries and may negatively affect the texture of the entire cookie. The flavor will also be much more tart with fresh vs. dried. Let me know if you try it, though, I would recommend cutting them into smaller pieces before adding them to the dough.
Yes! A chopped bar of white chocolate would work great for this recipe. Just cut into pieces around the size of chocolate chips and add in as usual.
🍋 More Lemon Recipes
Looking for more recipes featuring lemons? Try these:
If you tried these Lemon Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and write a little note telling me how it went in the comments below. Thank you!!
📖 Recipe
White Chocolate Cranberry Lemon Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheet(s)
- parchment paper
- mixing bowls
- measuring cups & spoons
- electric handheld mixer
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter * softened
- 4 oz. package instant lemon pudding mix
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoons lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest (zest of 1 lemon)
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup dried cranberries chopped finely
- 1 cup white chocolate chips *
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line 3 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter, lemon pudding mix, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add the lemon extract, vanilla, lemon zest, and eggs and beat on medium speed until fluffy and light in color.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in the cranberries and white chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets, 8 cookies per pan. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until the bottoms are golden brown. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Bake the remaining pans of cookies. Enjoy!
Notes
- Add ½ teaspoon of salt to the recipe if using unsalted butter.
- You could use chopped white chocolate or white chocolate chips.
Mavis
9 minutes was good,set more while cooling. Chewy. Use chocolate chips chopped. Needs more lemon
Donna Andres
This surely sounds like a splendid recipe. Will have to try it😘
Naomi
It definitely is! Let me know how they turn out! 😘
Naomi
Loreen
I had the opportunity to taste these cookies. So YUMMY!! Absolutely one of my favourite cookies ever!
Naomi
Thank you so much, Mrs. Johnson! 😘