Gluten free white chocolate cranberry cookies are a perfect blend of buttery, soft cookie with the tart flavor of dried cranberries.
Made with dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, cassava flour, butter, sugar, and eggs, they're easy to whip up and NO ONE will guess that they're gluten free!
White chocolate cranberry cookies = a perfect blend of tart and sweet
After developing the recipe for my all-time favorite cookies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, I knew I had a solid base for all kinds of gluten free cookie recipes.
Cranberry and white chocolate was the first combo that came to mind. I'm a sucker for tart cranberries balancing the sweetness of white chocolate chips!
So, it was easy enough to swap out the toasted macadamia nuts in my original recipe for chopped dried cranberries.
100% worth it! This recipe was another winner I knew had to be shared.
Ingredients needed for this cookie recipe
Since I come first from a background of paleo cooking and baking before widening my scope to gluten free baking, my white chocolate macadamia cookies use a different flour than most.
- Cassava flour: My go-to gluten free flour is cassava flour. While it's not a 1:1 replacement for white flour, I personally think the texture and taste of cassava flour is much closer to flour than most gluten free blends out there.
- Xanthan gum: Next ingredient of note is xanthan gum. Now, I tried this recipe both with and without xanthan gum, and it definitely helps to keep the cookies tender and chewy. But if you need to omit it, you'll still get good cookies at the end.
- Dried cranberries: If possible, grab cranberries that aren't sugar-sweetened. I get cranberries that are sweetened with apple juice. I find they aren't TOO sweet that way - there's definitely enough sugar in these cookies and you want to balance that sweetness with tart cranberries!
- Cane sugar/granulated sugar: I know many recipes out there call for both granulated sugar and brown sugar. I didn't find that necessary here. Feel free to experiment with that if you want. Organic cane sugar did the trick for me and I definitely didn't think anything was missing.
Everything else is pretty explanatory!
Can I use all-purpose gluten free flour instead of cassava flour?
Yes, if you'd like!
Cassava flour soaks up just a little more moisture than most gluten free flour blends, so you may have to increase the amount of flour by up to ¼ cup.
If, once the batter rests, the cookie dough seems a little too wet to easily make balls, add more gluten free flour 1 tablespoon at a time.
Also, if your go-to gluten free flour blend already has xanthan gum, omit it from the recipe - no need to add more.
I like Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour.
How to make gluten free white chocolate cranberry cookies
The cookies will start how most good cookies do: by creaming the butter and sugar. Beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until it becomes lighter in color and mostly uniform in texture. This should take a good 5 minutes!
Gradually add the dry ingredients, then the eggs. Finally, fold in the dried cranberries and white chocolate chips.
And now...we wait. Seriously. Let the dough rest for at LEAST 30 minutes at room temperature before baking.
Why? Gluten free flour doesn't soak up moisture as readily as wheat flour. Especially fats (like the butter in cookies).
I learned this tip from a cookbook and have seen it in practice over the last few years. The cookie dough will definitely benefit from the rest time!
So there's your lesson: let the dough (and cookies) rest!
More gluten free cookie recipes to try:
- Chewy Molasses Cookies (Gluten Free)
- Gluten Free White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
- 3-Ingredient Paleo "Peanut Butter" Cookies
- Gluten Free Halvah (Tahini) Cookies
How to make these cookies paleo
To make a gluten free, grain free, AND dairy free version of these white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, you'll have to make a few additional swaps.
Note that I think the recipe as written is the ideal way to make these gluten free cookies, but if your diet restricts you from the way it's written, we'll figure it out!
Cane Sugar: swap with coconut sugar or maple sugar. The cookies will be darker and possibly a little crumbly.
Butter: swap with ghee or vegetable shortening.
White chocolate chips: Enjoy Life and Pascha both make a gluten free/dairy free white chocolate chip! They do, however, have cane sugar and brown rice syrup. If you know of a truly "paleo" brand, let met know. Otherwise, you can make your own white chocolate.
Did you try this recipe? I'd love to hear what you think! Comment below or tag me on Instagram.
Print📖 Recipe
White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies (Gluten Free)
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 52 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen cookies 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Buttery and nutty, white chocolate madamadia cookies are a hidden gem! This recipe uses cassava flour - my go-to for gluten free and grain free baking, but you can swap all-purpose gluten free flour if you'd like (see NOTES).
Ingredients
- 7 ounces macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
- 2 cups cassava flour (see Notes for GF flour blend substitute)
- 1 ½ teaspoons xanthan gum (optional, but recommended)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 16 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups cane sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Toast nuts: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the macadamia nuts out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes, giving the pan a good shake halfway through, until the macadamia nuts are lightly browned. Remove from the oven and cool.
- Mix dry ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, combine the cassava flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and kosher salt. Stir until uniform.
- Cream butter and sugar: Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat at medium speed to cream the butter and sugar together for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is fully incorporated and light in color.
- Mix cookie dough: Turn the beater to low and gradually add the flour mixture, stopping the beater to scrape down the sides as necessary. Be careful not to pour the flour onto the beater while it's on! Finally, add the eggs, beating just until incorporated. Turn off the beater. Fold in the cooled macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips with a large spatula. Set the dough aside for 30 minutes before baking - I find this step crucial for most gluten free recipes to allow the liquid in the recipe to permeate the dense cassava flour.
- Bake cookies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using your hands, form 1 inch balls of dough and place them about 3 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool. Repeat as necessary in batches to use all of the dough.
Notes
- To use gluten free flour: Substitute a gluten free flour blend (I like Bob's Red Mill GF 1-to-1 Baking Flour), omitting the xanthan gum if your blend already has it. You may have to increase the amount of flour by up to 1 cup; start with ¼ cup and add 1 tablespoon at a time until the proper "cookie dough" consistency is reached. Not a bad idea to bake a test cookie before baking an entire batch!
- Use coconut sugar: You can swap cane sugar for coconut sugar if you'd like, but I definitely preferred the flavor of cane sugar!
- Rest the dough: Don't skip this step! Rest the dough for at least 30 minutes. For cassava flour, I prefer to let is rest at room temperature. If using a gluten free flour blend, pop it in the fridge for 30 minutes (this helps prevent too much spreading).
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