Healthy Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

These healthy oatmeal cranberry cookies scented with orange and covered with white chocolate are the ultimate holiday cookies. Loaded with rolled oats and dried cranberries, they make a healthy sweet treat. What's more? You will get about 30 cookies within an hour!

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LIf you look for traditional holiday cookies, please, do not look any further. This oatmeal cranberry cookie recipe adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh is the ultimate one to keep and make during the magical Christmas time.

What I love about these cookies is that they make a great edible gift. Just have a look at cookies packed into small plastic bags and tied with a tartan ribbon. I bet you love this gift idea!

Oatmeal cranberry cookies

To highlight the main cookies' ingredients, I would say that they are whole wheat flour, old fashioned oats, dried cranberries, orange zest, and white chocolate. I still wonder about their proper title.

Should I simply call them as oatmeal cookies or dried cranberry cookies? Or should I go deeper and call them as oatmeal cranberry cookies or oatmeal cranberry orange cookies.

Now, the cookies are covered with melted white chocolate. Should I call them chocolate cranberry cookies in this case?

Well, it does not matter how the cookies are called; they are super tasty and delicious. This is guaranteed!

Why these oatmeal cookies are healthy

These oatmeal cranberry cookies do not contain any trans fats; there are no such ingredients as margarine or vegetable shortening in the recipe.

They are made with whole wheat flour that takes one-third of the flour used in the recipe. To make the cookies healthier, please, try to replace all-purpose flour with biodynamic whole wheat flour by ISIS Biodynamic® or King Authur white whole wheat flour.

Old fashioned oats bring health benefits due to proteins and fiber.

These cookie recipe include healthful fats such as almonds.

And yes, this oatmeal cranberry cookies recipe calls for refined sugar, but the cookies are not over sweetened. The amount of granulated sugar used in the recipe is needed to keep the texture of cookies.

To make these cookies healthier and to cut down on sugar, I would recommend using unsweetened dried cranberries and omit the white chocolate decoration on top.

Why you should try these cookies

1. The recipe is easy and quick: there is no need to chill the cookie dough, and you will make about 30 cookies within an hour.
2. Whole wheat flour combined with oats brings nutrients and texture to cookies.
3. Tart cranberries beautifully pair with white chocolate in these healthy cranberry cookies.
4. Orange zest and orange juice give the cookies doubly citrus flavor.
5. Replacing almonds with other nuts such as hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans, and switching dried cranberries for dried cherries open vast possibilities to customize these cookies.
6. If you are not fun of white chocolate, please, go for dark or milk chocolate.
7. These cookies are a treasure during holidays: they make a great edible gift! Just pack cookies into small plastic bags tied with a tartan ribbon. You might consider arranging these sweet treats in a pretty gift box layered with a paper shred filler and tied with a festive ribbon.
8. Following this easy recipe, you will make a batch of cookies within one hour.

Ingredients

Here is a quick overview of what ingredients you will need. Follow the full recipe below for exact amounts and instructions. I recommend making this recipe as written for the best results. 

Almonds: use whole almonds with skin on and toast them in the oven at 355 F/180 C for 10 minutes. Replace these nuts with toasted hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, or pecans.

All-purpose flour: it is part of these cookies.

Whole wheat flour: use whole wheat flour (in the US) or wholemeal flour (the UK and Europe). One of the best brands of whole wheat flour is BIODYNAMIC® whole wheat flour.

Oats: use regular old fashioned oats, and avoid steel-cut oats that will not work for this recipe. I would not recommend using quick-cooking oats either since they will not give the right chewy texture in oatmeal cookies.

Salt: a pinch of salt elevates the taste of these cookies.

Butter: the recipe calls for unsalted softened butter.

Sugar: use regular granulated or caster sugar.

Orange zest: choose an organic, untreated orange and use a zester grater to make the orange zest.

Dried cranberries: use sweetened or unsweetened dried cranberries if you watch your sugar intake. Replace dried cranberries with dried cherries, raisins, or even dried apricots.

Orange juice: make it yourself with a citrus squeezer or use a store-bought orange juice.

White chocolate: use Lindt classic white chocolate or Callebaut white chocolate.

How to make healthy cranberry oatmeal cookies

To toast almonds, heat oven to 355 F/180 C. Place whole nuts on a baking sheet and toast for 10 minutes. Remove almonds from the oven and let cool. 

Increase the temperature of the oven to 375 F/190 C. Prepare two baking sheets covered with parchment paper.

To make the cookie dough, chop dried cranberries in half and soak in orange juice. Chop roasted nuts into big enough pieces (⅓ inches/0.8 cm).

In a separate bowl, mix almonds, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, oats, salt, and set aside. Place butter cut into big pieces, sugar, and orange zest in the bowl of a stand mixer (photo 1) and mix on medium speed for about two minutes (photo 2).

Add the almonds/flour dry mixture to the butter/sugar preparation and mix at low speed just to combine (photo 3). Add the drained cranberries and mix for a few seconds (photo 4).

Bring the ready cookie dough on the floured surface of a table and make a ball with hands. You might need to add some flour to facilitate the work with the dough.

Take half of the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin to reach the thickness of⅕ inches/0.5 cm. Cut the dough into rounds, using a round cookie cutter of 2.5 inches/7 cm in diameter (photo 5).

Arrange unbaked cookies on baking sheets with the parchment (photo 6) and bake for 18 minutes. Finish the remaining dough in the same way.

Remove ready cookies from the oven and let cool (photo 7).

To decorate cookies, melt white chocolate on a bain-marie/water bath. Pour one tablespoon of melted chocolate on top of each cookie and spread with the back of a spoon (photo 8).

Leave cookies for about one hour at the room temperature for the chocolate to set.

Expert tips

1. Beat butter, sugar, and orange zest with an electric mixer and then mix the dough in a bowl, using a rubber spatula if you do not have a stand mixer.
2. Use dried cherries instead of dried cranberries.
3. Replace almonds with other nuts such as hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts, or pecans.
4. Be sure to read about how to melt chocolate.
5. Cover cookies with melted dark or milk chocolate if you prefer.
6. Let any chocolate to thicken a bit if you prefer to cover cookies with a thick layer of chocolate.
7. Allow the chocolate to set for a least one hour before packing cookies.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the whole wheat flour?

Whole wheat flour is flour that is made by grinding the entire grain of hard white spring wheat and contains the bran and germ. It is healthy and nutritious due to the high amount of dietary fiber.

Can you substitute whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour?

You can replace some whole wheat flour with white flour, but you will reduce the health benefits of your baking goods.

If you substitute whole wheat for all-purpose flour, you will limit yourself with fiber and other nutrients containing in the whole wheat flour.

How can you make the cookies gluten-free?

I have not tested it, but you should be able to make a gluten-free version of cookies, using gluten-free old fashioned rolled oats, and a gluten-free flour blend.

How to store these cookies

Store these cranberry oatmeal cookies in an airtight container for up to one week.

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The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should independently verify it using your preferred tool. Under no circumstances will Baking Like a Chef be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from your reliance on the nutritional information. You are solely responsible for all decisions about your health and ensuring that any nutritional information provided is accurate. Please, read the disclaimers in our Privacy Policy.

The recipe was adapted from https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/. It was originally published on December 02, 2018. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.