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These gluten-free white chocolate cranberry pistachio cookies start with King Arthur 1:1 gluten-free flour, salted butter, and an extra egg yolk. Then you stir in white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and chopped pistachios! Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, and you’ll have 24 cookies in under an hour.
They’re perfect for the holidays with the cranberries - but you can make them any time of year. They’re SO good on a Christmas cookie tray, at a cookie exchange, or packed in gift tins!
Table of Contents
- Quick Look: Gluten-Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
- Same Gluten-Free Dough, Way More Mix-Ins!
- Ingredient Notes
- How to Make Gluten-Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
- Leave Out What You Don’t Love
- More Holiday Cookies!
- Gluten Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies Recipe
Quick Look: Gluten-Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🍳 Cook Time: 12 minutes
- 🕒 Total Time: 52 minutes (includes a 30-minute chill)
- 📊 Calories: ~211 kcal per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 👥 Servings: 24 cookies
- 🔥 Cook Method: oven-baked on two parchment-lined baking sheets at 375°F
- 👩🍳 Flavor Profile: a buttery brown sugar cookie with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and chopped pistachios
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy, perfect for the holidays
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Same Gluten-Free Dough, Way More Mix-Ins!
This is my tried-and-true gluten-free cookie base. I use the exact same dough for my gluten-free chocolate chip cookies made with dark chocolate chips. It’s also the base for my raspberry white chocolate cookies made with freeze-dried raspberries (SO pretty for Valentine’s Day!).
This time I stir in white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and pistachios. And I add a LOT more of them: 2¼ cups of mix-ins here, compared to 1½ cups of chips in my chocolate chip cookies. That makes these extra mix-in dense, so you get white chocolate, cranberry, or pistachio in EVERY bite!
Ingredient Notes
- Gluten-free 1:1 flour: King Arthur Baking Gluten Free Measure for Measure is the only flour I’ve tested for this recipe (and it’s the only flour I use for my baking recipes). It already has xanthan gum in it, so you don’t need to add any. If you use a different blend, your cookies may turn out differently.
- White chocolate chips: Make sure to look for gluten-free on the label if you have celiac disease! From my research, Toll House, Good & Gather, Lily’s, Pascha, and Enjoy Life all make gluten-free white chocolate, so use whichever one you can find.
- Pistachios: Use shelled pistachios - otherwise it's WAY too much work! Salted or unsalted both work. Just keep in mind that salted pistachios will make the whole cookie a little saltier.
- Dried cranberries: Feel free to swap in dried cherries. They’re about the same size as dried cranberries, so use the same ¾ cup.
How to Make Gluten-Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
I’ve found that one egg plus a yolk gives this dough a better texture than two whole eggs (in my opinion!). The extra yolk makes the cookies richer and chewier, with soft centers. Definitely chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before you scoop it. If you skip the chill, the cookies turn out flat. Here’s how to make these, step by step!
Step 1: Mix the gluten-free flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
Step 2: Cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together until combined.
Step 3: Beat in the egg, the extra yolk, and the vanilla extract.
Step 4: Add the dry ingredients and mix. The dough is THICK, so you’ll need some elbow grease here!
Step 5: Stir in the white chocolate chips, pistachios, and dried cranberries. Then refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
Step 6: Scoop the dough with a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop, roll it into balls, and space them 1-2 inches apart for 24 cookies.
Step 7: Bake for 10-12 minutes, and pull them when the bottoms are slightly browned and the tops look almost not done. I promise they’re perfect at this point! If the tops look fully done, you’ve baked them too long.
Leave Out What You Don’t Love
You can also leave out some of the mix-ins if you’d rather. Skip the pistachios if nuts aren’t your thing, or leave out the white chocolate for a less sweet cookie. Keep everything else in the recipe the same!
And if you’re baking a few batches this season, add my gluten-free hot cocoa cookies with marshmallows to the list. You can find more gluten-free holiday recipes here, too!
More Holiday Cookies!
Gluten Free White Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup salted butter
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 ¼ cups gluten free 1:1 flour – I like King Arthur Baking brand
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup shelled pistachios, chopped
- ¾ cup dried cranberries, or dried cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, mix the gluten free flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate larger bowl, cream the butter and sugars together until combined. Beat in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl and mix to combine. You will need to use some elbow grease to combine the dough!
- Add in white chocolate chips, pistachios, and dried cranberries. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
- Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop and roll the dough into balls. Place them 1-2 inches apart on your baking sheets. You will have 24 cookies total.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until just starting to brown. Remove and let them cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: Use King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure. It already has xanthan gum in it, so don’t add any. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off instead of scooping, so you don’t pack in extra.
- Butter: Let the butter soften at room temperature first so it creams smoothly with the sugars.
- Pistachios: Roughly chop them so the pieces are about the size of the white chocolate chips.
- Make ahead: You can chill the dough up to overnight. If it’s too firm to scoop, let it sit out for 5-10 minutes.
- For a prettier look: Press a few extra white chocolate chips, cranberries, and pistachios into the tops of the dough balls before baking.
- Don’t worry if they look underdone: They finish setting during the 5 minutes on the baking sheet.
- Swaps: Use the same amount of dried cherries in place of the cranberries, or leave out any mix-in you don’t love.
- Storage: Keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Freeze baked cookies in a freezer-safe bag for up to 2 months, or freeze the scooped dough balls and bake them straight from frozen, adding 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
Nutrition
All nutrition facts are an estimate and automatically calculated. While I fact check them using My Fitness Pal, please note that they may not always be 100% accurate and depend on ingredients used. Weigh your total and divide by the number of servings for the most accurate grams per serving size.
