Frosted Cranberry Drop Cookies.
These cranberry drop cookies are perfect for the holiday season! Topped with cream cheese frosting and sparkly sprinkles, they are festive and delicious!
Oh my gosh. New favorite christmas cookie alert!
These cookies are DELISH!
This drop cookie is made with dried cranberries, cream cheese frosting and hit of orange or cinnamon if you wish. It’s FESTIVE. And slightly chewy. It’s so buttery and good.
I’ll be honest. This has never been my favorite flavor combination. Cranberry orange is good but it’s just not something I would choose first. We all know what a psycho chocolate peanut butter fan I am – and those flavor combos are on two totally different spectrums.
I gotta say, this cookie may be changing my mind. This is such a good cookie!!
The original recipe called for fresh cranberries. I like using fresh cranberries sometimes, but they really didn’t appeal to me in cookies. And I often have trouble finding them other than, like, three random weeks in November.
So here we are! An easy, buttery drop cookie stuffed with dried cranberries. YUM.
Also, the term drop cookie is funny! You really can drop spoonfuls of these right onto the baking sheet. I prefer to do a more perfect “drop” with an ice cream scoop so they are roughly the same size and look pretty. In other words, so they look instagram-pretty. You know.
These cookies are also frosted!! Clearly.
I dollop on some of my cream cheese frosting, making these some of the kids’ new favorite cookies too. Anything with frosting.
The frosting excites me too, because I liiiiiive for cream cheese frosting.
And you can totally spice this up too. Add a bit of cinnamon or nutmeg to the frosting. Stir in some freshly grated orange zest (my fave).
I think it goes without saying that you can also add some white chocolate to the cookies too.
These are a new classic!
Cranberry Drop Cookies
Cranberry Drop Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- ⅔ cup dried cranberries, or cherries!
cream cheese frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- optional: add in ¼ teaspoon cinnamon or 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
- sugar sprinkles, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the egg until combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract and the milk.
- Beat in the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir in the dried cranberries.
- Drop the cookies on to the baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and set. Remove and let cool completely before frosting.
cream cheese frosting
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together until creamy. Beat in the sugar until combined. Beat in the vanilla extract. If desired, add either the cinnamon or the orange zest. Frost the cookies once cooled and sprinkle with sugar sprinkles.
Notes
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Frosting dollops for life.
8 Comments on “Frosted Cranberry Drop Cookies.”
Do the cookier require refrigeration due to cream cheese frosting?
Delicious! When this recipe hit my inbox this morning I knew what I was making today. They turned out so good! Another recipe from you that’s a keeper!
Cranberries are here only a few weeks, true. However, I always buy extra bags and freeze them right in their bag! They are available for recipes the rest of the year. I’ve got to try this recipe because I love anything cranberry.
These are wonderful – thanks for sharing!
These cookies are crazy good! The sweetness of the cream cheese frosting really compliments the tartness of the dried cranberries. Thanks for the recipe, Jessica, and a Merry Christmas to you and your family. Your blog is so entertaining!
Ugh wanted to love these but like another similar ratio cookie I tried from you last year they didn’t spread at all and wound up hard cookie dough balls. Hard on outside doughy inside. Butter was room temp, I use scoop and level for flour method and oven temp isn’t off. Didn’t refrigerate dough. I’m an avid baker and stumped. It was a shame because dough tasted great lol and they were for my grandma who’s brother just passed from covid.
not sure why they didn’t work holly! as noted in the recipe this is a taste of home recipe so it’s not a recipe from any of my other cookies nor is it my own. drop cookies usually don’t spread much but they shouldn’t be hard balls. these ones always work for me!
These are sooo delicious! I made them for New Years and they were a hit. I did have to add a significant amount more of milk because my dough was so dry with just the 1/4 cup it was basically just crumbs! But they turned out perfect. The cream cheese icing is the perfect addition. This recipe is definitely a keeper!