Sparkling Sugarplum Cranberry Cookies a chewy cranberry orange cookie made from fresh cranberries and oranges. With an all natural plum color and beautiful sparkle these cranberry cookies look just like sugarplums!
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Sugar plum cookies
These Cranberry Cookies were inspired by sparkling sugar plums. Sugar plums are a traditional candy made from a mixture of dried fruits and nuts rolled in sugar. And are most known as the treat that dances in children’s heads at Christmas. As well as on the stage as the dance of the Sugar Plum fairy in the Nutcracker ballet.
Sugar plum cookies like these are such a fun Christmas cookie to serve to little ones with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. Natural, brightly colored, sparkling cookies that look like sugarplums and taste absolutely delicious. These sugar plum cookies are chewy and sweet with the best cranberry orange flavor.
Mix in white chocolate chips to make white chocolate cranberry cookies. Or you can even make cranberry almond cookies with diced dried plums to make them even more like a traditional sugarplum!
Ingredients
- Frozen cranberries – to defrost and puree in order to get a thick cranberry sauce. Or you can substitute leftover homemade or canned cranberry sauce to make cranberry sauce cookies. Simply use cranberry sauce, either whole cranberry sauce or jellied cranberry, in place of the pureed cranberry orange mixture. And reduce the amount of granulated sugar in the cookie dough slightly.
- Orange– to make fresh orange zest and fresh squeezed orange juice.
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter – room temperature
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Craisins – dried cranberries make a great addition to this cranberry cookie recipe but you can make them with all other sorts of ingredients stirred in like chocolate, dried fruit, nuts and more.
- Optional – coarse sanding sugar like clear or colored decorating sugar sprinkles give these cranberry cookies the best sparkle.
Step by step instructions
- Measure frozen cranberries and allow to defrost at room temperature for several hours or overnight, refrigerated, until soft and juicy. The longer you can allow the berries to thaw and release their juices, the better. Alternately speed up the process by heating cranberries slightly either over a low stovetop or short intervals in the microwave.
- Zest orange then squeeze the orange to make fresh squeezed orange juice.
- Add thawed cranberries and all their juices to a food processor or high powered blender with 2 tablespoons orange juice and orange zest. Then measure cranberry orange mixture. Adding the additional orange juice if necessary to fill to ⅔ cup total cranberry puree.
- Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer whip butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add cranberry orange mixture to whipped butter and continue whipping forcefully on high speed until cranberry orange mixture is fully emulsified and incorporated.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low and gently stir in dry ingredients being careful not to over mix. Then add dried cranberries.
- Cover cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill stiff and no longer slack, at least 30 min.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare several parchment lined baking sheets.
- Scoop cookie dough into small balls using a cookie scoop or spoon. And roll in granulated sugar, or sparkling sugar, until fully covered. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until lightly golden around the edges but not yet brown about 8-10 minutes.
- Remove cookies from oven and cool slightly before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling.
- Enjoy!
White chocolate cranberry cookies
These delicious cranberry cookies are delicious as is with dried cranberry. But there are all sorts of ingredients to add to cranberry cookies! Make white chocolate cranberry cookies, similar to these blueberry, apple and strawberry cookies recipes.
Or make cranberry chocolate chip cookies, cranberry pecan, macadamia, or pistachio cookies. You can even roll in cranberry sugar.
There are also many ways to top cranberry cookies after they’re baked. You can make cranberry orange cookies like they are and add an orange glaze made from confectioners’ sugar and the remaining fresh orange juice.
Or make the stunning red and green Christmas cookies by dipping the naturally red cookies in green matcha white chocolate after they’re cooled. Or try them dipped in dark chocolate as a sweet Valentine’s day dessert recipe.
Yield
This recipe yields 24 small cranberry cookies. But you can easily double or triple the recipe.
Shelf life
The high moisture content of this cookie makes them extremely soft at first. But once cookies cool they firm up and become chewy. Stored uncovered at room temperature they will maintain their chewy texture for up to five days.
How to freeze
To make ahead of time chill dough then scoop into little balls and place in a single layer on a baking sheet. Cover and freeze until firm and transfer to a freezer bag to store until ready to bake. Bake from frozen adding a few minutes to the overall cook time.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups frozen cranberries
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- ¼ cup orange juice divided
- ⅔ cup unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup Craisins dried cranberries
Instructions
- Measure frozen cranberries and allow to defrost at room temperature for several hours or overnight, refrigerated, until soft and juicy. The longer you can allow the berries to thaw and release their juices, the better. Alternately speed up the process by heating cranberries slightly either over a low stovetop or short intervals in the microwave.1 ½ cups frozen cranberries
- Add thawed cranberries and all their juices to a food processor or high powered blender with 2 tablespoons orange juice and orange zest and blend smooth. Measure ⅔ cup cranberry orange mixture, adding additional orange juice if necessary to fill.¼ cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon orange zest
- Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer whip room temperature butter and sugar until light and fluffy.⅔ cup unsalted butter, ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- Add cranberry orange mixture to whipped butter and continue whipping forcefully on high speed until cranberry orange mixture is fully emulsified and incorporated.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low and gently stir dry ingredients into the emulsified cranberry butter mixture, being careful not to over mix. Once combined stir dried cranberries into the dough.2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ cup Craisins
- Cover cookie dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill stiff and no longer slack, at least 30 min.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare several parchment lined baking sheets.
- Scoop cookie dough into small balls using a cookie scoop or spoon. And roll in granulated sugar, or sparkling sugar, until fully covered. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake until lightly golden around the edges but not yet brown about 8-10 minutes.
- Remove cookies from oven and cool slightly before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling.
Video
Nutrition
Ann
These cookies are absolutely delicious! Everyone loved them not only because of their taste but the lovely color and sparkling sugar. A definite hit!
Tristin Rieken
Thank you so much for the sweet comment about my cranberry cookie recipe. I’m so glad everyone loved them 🙂
Margaret Toma
Lovely cookies. Hubby said they improve with age. I used dried cherries and a double batch went in 2 days. Will be making these all winter long with frozen cranberries. The sparkly sugar does make the difference. Lovely and yummy.
Tristin Rieken
Ahh Thanks so much for your review 🙂 I’m so glad you and your husband both loved them.
Beth
Can’t wait to bake these. My store does not have the frozen cranberries, would fresh work?
Tristin Rieken
Absolutely! Fresh cranberries are only available for a short time and are amazing in these cranberry cookies. To use fresh cranberries instead of frozen, you can either 1. heat the cranberries in short intervals in the microwave or on the stovetop over low heat until the cranberries release their juices, then puree the juicy cranberries with orange juice as directed, making sure that the cranberry orange puree is completely cool proceeding with the recipe. Or, 2. freeze the fresh cranberries then follow the recipe directions.
Tomba
I’m about to make these, but realized that there are no eggs, right?
Tristin Rieken
Yes, that is correct this is an eggless cookie recipe where the emulsified cranberries give stability and add moisture rather than eggs.
Wendy
Delicious! I won the Christmas cookie contest with these little tasty bites!
Tristin Rieken
Yay!! I LOVE that these are now ‘award winning’ cranberry cookies 🙂
Sandi Reviakin
Good day I made these today. It took longer to bake – maybe I made the cookies too big? What size do you make your cookies? Also my cookies were a pale color. Your cookies look so vibrant and delicious.
Any feedback would be appreciated. Have a great and safe weekend.
Tristin Rieken
Regarding the pale color.. did you use frozen cranberries and allow them to fully defrost then combine ALL the cranberry juice and cranberries into a thick puree? Using the cranberries frozen or not using the cranberry juice from the defrosted cranberries would cause the cookies to not be so vibrantly colored and would be more dry and crumbly rather than soft and chewy. You also want to make small cookies using a tablespoon or a small #60 scoop and make sure not to overbake the cookies. They will still be soft when you remove, but will set up and be soft and chewy once cool.
Sandi
Thanks for responding. Yes I used frozen cranberries and all the juice. The cranberries defrosted overnight. I measured out 1/4 cup of orange juice and then removed 2 tbsp to put with the cranberries and orange zest to blend. The purée was very thick and I had more than the required 2/3 cups of purée. I could not see where to add the rest of the orange juice so I added it to the butter mixture after I added the cranberry purée. I used the 5 cm med scoop from pampered chef to scoop out the cookie dough.
I loved the flavor; so did my family. I will make again and hopefully I get that beautiful color that your cookies have. Can you let me know when I add the orange juice. Or if I should use the smaller cookie scoop next time. Thanks. Have a great and safe week.
Sandi
Good afternoon I did use frozen cranberries and all the juice. I added 2 tbsp of orange juice and the zest. I mixed in food processor and got over 2/3 cups of purée. I added 2/3 of a cup of puree and the leftover orange juice to the butter mixture. There were no directions when to add the juice. So I added the juice after the puree to the dry ingredients and then folded in the craisins.
I did use a 5 cm pampered chef cookie spoon to mesure out the cookies. Maybe I will try the smaller scoop next time.
Please advise if you notice in my details that I made an error so I can correct it next time.
I loved the cookies; so did my family so I will definitely make them again. Any pointers after reading what I did so my cookies turn out better and more vibrant in color
Thanks. Have a great and safe week
Tristin Rieken
Hi Sandi! Thank you so much for your reply, I appreciate your detailed response and I *think* I may have found what caused the cookies to not be very vibrantly colored and to have to bake longer than directed…. the issue may lie in the orange juice. You were absolutely correct to add the 2 tablespoons of orange juice to your defrosted cranberries in the food processor BUT since you already had 2/3 cup of the puree there was no need to add the additional orange juice to cookie dough. That is only listed in ingredients in case additional juice needs to be added to the puree to reach 2/3 cup total. Thanks so much for reaching out, I will review my recipe instructions to make this part less confusing 🙂
Becky
Made my first batch of these today and they are delicious! Can’t wait to add these to our Christmas cookie trays this year! They are so pretty and will add some beautiful color to the trays!
Tristin Rieken
Ahhh yay! I’m so glad that you loved them 🙂 I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and review. Thanks so much!
MOLLY D
Can you bake these ahead of time and then freeze them?
Tristin Rieken
Hi Molly! Apologies for the late reply. These bake beautifully from frozen, but I have never tried baking then freezing.
bridget
can you use fresh cranberries?
Tristin Rieken
Hi Bridget, yes, you can use fresh cranberries but you will need to soften them in order to release the juices so that the batter will emulsify correctly- I suggest warming in a microwave or on stovetop over low heat until the berries soften and release their juices. Then cool completely before using.
MOLLY
Hi, can you make these ahead of time and then freeze them after baking? I only saw instructions for freezing before baking.
Monique Walczak
I’m about to try these cookies, was curious if I needed to lower the granulated sugar if I use homemade cranberry sauce? My homemade sauce has orange juice and sugar in it already. Thank you so much, these looks so tasty!
Tristin Rieken
Great question, Monique! I’ve substituted my homemade cranberry jelly and store bought versions (both the canned stuff and the higher end sauces) in this cookie recipe and have had great results with reducing the sugar in the cookie dough from 2/3 to 1/2 cup. I will update the recipe notes to include this. Thanks for asking 🙂