Gluten free white chocolate and cranberry cookies

I’m so excited to be sharing this fabulous recipe for white chocolate and cranberry cookies with you. I’d been wanting to get a cookie recipe on my site for a while now, and last week I finally went on the hunt for THE recipe that I felt would work well in gluten free format. Well I can tell you, I hit gold when I picked out this white chocolate cookie recipe from Sweetest menu.

I’ve recently discovered Sweetest menu site and just love it! Jess, who writes the blog, shares a wonderful selection of appealing, easy to make recipes that work splendidly. Last month I rustled up a gorgeous chocolate banana bread from her site and was blown away with how good it was. Whilst there is a dedicated gluten free section on the blog, the chocolate banana loaf, and the cookie recipe that I’m about to tell you about, are both standard recipes that I adapted to make gluten free. 

OK, so now time to tell you a little bit more about these knock your socks of gorgeous cookies, that tasted SO good I ate three before my tea!

I did hold my breath a little when I slid the cookie tray into the oven and shut the door. As I was expecting them to spread out across the tray as they baked. But they didn’t, they behaved themselves. And when it was time to take them out, I was delighted to see the cookie dough had magically transformed into golden thick biscuits. 

The addition of cranberries to the cookies came about simply because I didn’t have quite enough chocolate chunks. But this proved to be a great move as the contrast of flavours worked together perfectly. Whilst the cookies are crisp on the outside, inside they are soft with the most gorgeous sweet fudgy flavour and to be honest are the nicest cookies I’ve ever eaten. 

Ingredients (makes 14-16 cookies)

115g softened butter (salted or unsalted will work – I used salted on this occasion)
90g light muscovado sugar (or soft brown sugar)
50g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg, room temp
210g gluten free plain flour 
½ teaspoon xanthan gum  
½ teaspoon *bicarbonate of soda
100g *white chocolate chunks or chips 
50g *dried cranberries 

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4/160C Fan.

Line two large flat baking trays with greaseproof paper. No need to grease. If like me, you only have one large baking tray then make the cookies in two batches.

Add the sugars and softened butter to a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy.

Pour in the vanilla extract and egg and whisk again for a minute or so until everything is nicely combined.

Add the gluten free flour, xanthan gum and bicarb to the bowl. Give it a little stir before whisking on a low setting until the mixture comes together and forms a cookie dough.

Finally add the white chocolate chips and cranberries and mix well until they are evenly distributed throughout the cookie dough.

Using a couple of dessertspoons, spoon even-sized mounds (a heaped spoonful will do the trick) of cookie dough onto the prepared tray. Allow enough space between the cookies for them to flatten as they bake. 

Pop the trays into the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges. 

Once baked remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes, before gently transferring them with a palette knife or fish slice onto a cooling rack.

If you can resist…leave the cookies to go cold before tucking in!

Recipe notes and suggestions:

I’ve included xanthan gum as an ingredient to improve the texture of the cookies. As the ASDA gluten free plain flour I used, didn’t contain it. Should your gluten free plain flour already have xanthan gum added, you won’t need to add any more to the flour. 

This cookie recipe is such a great base recipe. If you fancy switching the white chocolate and cranberry to another ingredient instead go for it. Things like crushed *mini eggs, *fudge pieces and chunkier pieces of *chocolate would all work magnificently.  

If you like your cookie to have a little more crunch bake them for a little longer.

You are able to freeze the raw cookie dough (the cooked cookies are not suitable to freeze). It would be best portion the dough up before freezing. You can bake from frozen too – just allow them a little more time in the oven. 

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I hope that you get around to rustling up some of these delicous cookies. Thanks as always for checking out my recipes. For more baking inspiration you may like to have a peep here.

For now
Liz x


*Double check this ingredient to ensure it has no gluten containing ingredients, ‘may contain’ or ‘not suitable warnings’. If in doubt leave it out.

Thanks and credit to Jess at Sweetest menu for kindly allowing me to adapt her original white chocolate chip cookie recipe and share it with you.

Gifted: Thanks so much to our milkman, Dean at Bell’s dairy. Who has kindly supported my blog, with some of his fabulous dairy products to use within this recipe.