Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Soft chewy brown sugar oatmeal cookies with sweetened dried cranberries. A chewy and hearty oatmeal cookie that everyone will love!
You know how I love a good cookie. That’s basically the understatement of the year — I am obsessed with COOKIES. Without a doubt, cookies are my favorite food in the world. But I am not going to waste my calories on mediocre cookies — they need to be out of this world good.
These Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries are the perfect chewy oatmeal cookie. This isn’t some dry, hockey puck oatmeal cookie. I want my oatmeal cookies to be soft and chewy every time! I can’t put these oatmeal cookies down!
The beauty of this cranberry oatmeal cookie is that I convince myself I could eat it for breakfast. It is hearty enough with the rolled oats to feel like a sweet breakfast treat or perfect for a snack while hiking.
What is the key to making the Best Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies? It is all about the ratios of butter, sugar, flour, and oats. It can’t have too much flour and oats to be too cakey or dry. It needs to be buttery with the perfect balance of sweetness. I reach for a ratio of more brown sugar to sugar since brown sugar creates a chewier texture while sugar gives those coveted crisp edges. You need both to create the perfect balance!
I use rolled oats because they hold up better in these cookies than quick-cooking 5-minute oats. But you can use either one in these oatmeal cookies! I also reach for sweetened dried cranberries, like Craisins, because of their sweet chewy texture pairs well with the hearty oatmeal.
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Soft Chewy Oatmeal Cookies with sweetened dried cranberries
- 1 cup Butter (cut into cubes)
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 2 1/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/2 cup Rolled Oats
- 1/2 teaspoon Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 2 cups Sweetened Dried Cranberries (such as Craisins)
Preheat oven to 365 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, brown sugar, and sugar for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl halfway through to ensure even mixing.
Add eggs and vanilla and cream for 1 minute longer.
Stir in flour, rolled oats, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Fold in dried cranberries.
Drop onto a light-colored baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until edges starts to turn a light golden color. Don't overbake.
These are excellent! Amazing recipe. I’m not much of a baker and I thought the dough was quite thick or that I had over mixed but I kept going. I also thought they were under baked but I pulled them out as stated when edges are just turning brown. They came out PERFECT!! I will be making these frequently. Follow recipe exactly and you will have a wonderful, soft, cranberry and oatmeal cookie!
What size? Tsp? Tbsp? larger? Thanks.
I am having this issue too. It looks like they are still raw in the middle, so I may have made them too big. A little instruction on the size would be helpful.
I put a little twist on the recipe and took one large ripe orange zested and squeezed the juice for 1/4 cup of orange and the zest in the mix, turned out really good.
Just one word..YUM!!! These cranberry oatmeal cookies were a big hit with my friends and me!! They were chewy and moist even after several days in a tightly sealed container. I used the trick of adding a piece of bread to the container of cookies, and that also helped them remain fresh. Cook them as described, but watch your cooking times with your particular oven. Definitely will be making these again. Thank you for a delicious cookie recipe!!
I can’t rave enough about them. My husband is quite picky and he can’t stop eating them.
I’ve made many of your recipes and you never disappoint.
Happy Easter and thanks for sharing
Can I use apple sauce instead of butter to make them less fattening?
So yummy! I tried to make these in a time crunch and only had frozen butter that I had to try to thaw quickly, so it ended up being more melted butter than it should have been probably, so these cookies ended up being a little flatter than the picture but OH WELL because they were absolutely divine! I doubled the recipe, and stayed at two cups Craisins and they were absolutely perfect! Will definitely make these again, I can’t wait to see how great they are when I have the butter at the right temp!
Delicious cookie! I cut recipe in half for 12 very nice size cookies. I used coconut sugar in place of regular sugar and I also added 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and cloves. Yummy and they come out the perfect mix of crisp on edges and soft in center. 213 calories per cookie
hi, I just read your post regarding the cranberry-oatmeal cookies at modernhoney.com.
You mention that you used coconut sugar in place of the regular sugar and I have a question
for you about that.
This recipe calls for brown sugar as well as white sugar, did you swap both sugars with coconut sugar,
or just the white sugar? Also was it an even swap, measure for measure?
Absolutely perfect cookies! The texture is so good, soft in the middle and chewy/crispy on the outside – so delicious! Also, I am at about 6000 feet elevation and I didn’t need to make any adjustments.
do you use infant oatmeal or old fashion?
yes this recipe mentions cream in the instruction but it is not mentioned in the recipe. how much cream???
Hi there! It is actually a verb — it means to “beat” or “cream” the butter and sugar together. Hope that helps!
An Internet recipe that’s actually really good. I’m no cookie baker but these came out wonderfully!
Cooked for 12 minutes and I questioned if they were done; I pulled them out of the oven anyway as the edges were slightly brown. Glad I did as they were perfect.
I love these! With my second batch I decided to add walnuts, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg. They will be my new fall cookie!
How much orange zest did you use? It sounds amazing!
I love those! Very easy to make and delicious! Next time I’ll try adding white chocolate chunks, I was out today but even so it was very good, thanks a lot!
What type flour… self rising or plain?
I don’t bake very often but these sound really good. My husband loves oatmeal cookies and I have leftover dried cranberries from Thanksgiving so I’m going to give it a try.
We only have fresh ground whole wheat flour and I’m wondering if that will make a difference in the result. Is there anything I should do differently?
Thanks for sharing this recipe with us –
Oh my goodness these were so good! I served them right out of the oven to my landscaping crew. One said they were better than her mother’s. Now that’s a compliment. Thanks for sharing.
Hands down, these are the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. Made several small changes: ground 1/2 cup of the oatmeal into a fine powder; used whole wheat flour; added 1 teaspoon cinnamon; and used 2 cups of Fresh Gourmet Cranberry Pecan topping instead of Craisins. Baked as directed using a cookie scoop and two pans, rotating the pans after five minutes.
The instructions mention adding cream. Cream is not listed in your ingredients. How much?
Hi there! To “cream” is a verb so it means to mix to mix that the butter and sugar together until it is creamy. I hope that helps!
Do you use granulated sugar or powdered sugar
Granulated.
Can I use parchment paper on cookie sheet before I drop the cookie dough. I don’t want them to burn .
I just made these with parchment, no problem
Want to try these soon! Just wondered – should we line the baking sheets or grease them? Also, what size cookie scoop should be used? A T., 1=1/2 T., 2 T., 3 T. Thank you very much.
I’ve noticed that she will say to use parchment when it’s needed in a recipe; this one she doesn’t. I prolly did around 3 tbs.
I always follow a recipe to the letter the first time I make something, and I would not change a thing for this!
It would help to add to the recipe that the spoon out size is about the size of a ping pong ball,but knowing it makes 24 cookies got me there.
YUMMY!!!
I added chopped walnuts and it made these even better. Made 4 dozen.
I just made these cookies and they are so good!!! I will definitely be making them again. Glad I found this recipe.
This is a delicious recipe! Every year I try to find new and different cookie recipes to add to my cookie baking marathon for the holidays and this one will without doubt be added. I will be making these again and adding them to my annual Christmas cookies gift boxes! Thank you for sharing!
Great recipe. I cut the amount of cranberries and added a 1tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of allspice. Delicious
My only switch was to soften the butter, but I think this recipe is one to commit to memory! Three times in a month with raisins, can’t wait to try more add ins, perfect chemistry balance of sugars and textures!
Thanks for the recipe, so yummy, I love the texture.
They are so yummy, delicious and thick, thanks for the recipe. Instead of 2 cups of cranberries, I put 1 of cranberries and 1 of raisins.
I followed this recipe as best I could, the only change I made was I had to bake them on crappy dark cookie sheets from the dollar store. They turned out amazing!!!! Lightly crispy around the edges, beautiful and gooey in the center. I baked them on the shorter side, 8.5 – 9 mins but we prefer our cookies slightly underdone.
I can’t get over how good these are, don’t by fooled by the really thick batter it all works out in the oven!
These are so good, made 3 batches for Christmas
What size cookie scoop do you use to make these?
Being a geezer cookie monster, I had to try these just based on the recipe. Turns out this monster can smell ’em out. Great cookie. However, like so many bakers I just had to do my own thing. I reduced cranberries by 1/4 cup and added a cup of chopped, roasted walnuts. This one is going in the book. Thanks for posting it.