Forget Chocolate Chips — Turn Any Cookie Recipe Festive With 2 Pantry Additions

There are certain cookies we often associate with Christmas: classic cut-out gingerbread cookies, perfectly-iced sugar cookies, snickerdoodles ... the list goes on. However, while some cookies seem made for the festive season, others can be adapted for it with a little creativity. Think about common Christmas colors — red and white — and then think about cookie mix-ins that could bring those colors into your bake. That's where white chocolate and dried cranberries come in — the two pantry staples can be added to practically any cookie recipe for a holiday spin. For example, if your recipe calls for chocolate chips, you can use white chocolate chips instead. If it calls for raisins (or another dried fruit), give cranberries a shot.

As a specific example, take our recipe for old-fashioned oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. In addition to your basic baking staples (and rolled oats), the recipe calls for one cup of chocolate chips. Using white chocolate chips will change the flavor slightly, but not in a bad way! The cookies will just be more sweet, milky, and vanilla forward. You could even add a half cup each of both white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to give the cookies even more of a festive look and boost their chewy texture. Either way, a simple 1:1 substitution of the mix-ins will do the job.

This doesn't just work for oatmeal cookies — you can add white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to any recipe even without substituting them with existing ingredients. Add a handful of each to your sugar cookies, shortbread, biscotti, and even blondies or brownies. You could even dip your cookie in melted white chocolate once it's baked. Additionally, if dried cranberries aren't your first pick, there's always dried cherries which you can use instead.

There are other mix-ins you can incorporate along with the white chocolate and cranberries in your bakes. Pistachios are an excellent addition to biscotti or recipes that call for nuts, and they pair very nicely with white chocolate and cranberries while adding another Christmas colour, green. You could even make blondies with a swirl of pistachio cream or butter — which are no doubt easier to find now, thanks to the Dubai chocolate trend — plus white chocolate chips and dried cranberries.

Another option, if you're making an M&M cookie (or an oatmeal or chocolate chip cookie), seek out red and green M&Ms at the grocery store and use those instead of the multi-colored ones. These are often available during the holiday season and give a clear "this is a Christmas cookie" signal — even if it's just your favorite oatmeal cookie recipe you make all year. And of course, there should be some seasonal sprinkles in stock at the grocery store if you want to give your iced or white chocolate-dipped sugar cookies a red, white, and green look without having to mix up multiple batches of colored frosting.

Finally, think about other flavors that might be associated with the holiday season, like cinnamon or citrus. Many of these flavors could pair wonderfully with white chocolate and dried cranberries both. Don't be afraid to do some experimenting — although if you're serving the cookies at a party or as a gift, you might want to do a trial batch first.