Chocolate Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies are sweet, gingerbread spiced chocolate cookies are filled with dried cranberries and miniature chocolate chips.
2014 was my first year participating in The Great American Food Blogger Cookie Swap and I loved it! What is it you ask? Food bloggers across the country signed up to bake one dozen homemade cookies for 3 other bloggers and in return they each receive three different boxes of scrumptious cookies from other bloggers. Pretty fun huh? The best part of the swap isn’t the sugar rush, but the chance to help raise money for Cookies For Kids Cancer. This year the swap raised over $ for cancer research!
I was super excited to participate in the swap, but it took me a couple of weeks to decide just what type of cookies to bake. I opted for a chocolate gingerbread cookie filled with dried cranberries and chocolate chips, because I am hopelessly addicted to the chocolate gingerbread combination right now, I just can’t get enough of it! There is something so delicious about spicy gingerbread paired with chocolate. With my inspiration guiding me I set out to make it a cookie reality.
I actually baked two batches of these cookies, mainly because I totally spazzed and gave all the cookies away before actually taking a chance to photograph them. Hey I’m not complaining about more delicious cookies to eat, except for the fact that I had 3 dozen more cookies headed my way. So of course I gave the second batch away as well. Bake these with or without the sanding sugar, it’s purely up to your preference. But lately I am pretty obsessed with it too, so I thought what they heck, throw a little on top!
Now that I have you craving a bit of chocolate, go ahead and make yourself a batch of these Chocolate Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies and smile, because there will be plenty for sharing. Make someone’s day this holiday season by sharing a few cookies with them, I hope you all will enjoy this recipe; happy baking!
Chocolate Cranberry Gingerbread Cookies
Prep
Cook
Total
Ingredients
- 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 ½ c flour
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ c butter, softened
- ¼ c cream cheese, softened
- ½ c brown sugar, packed
- ¼ c molasses
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs, extra large
- ¾ c dried cranberries
- ¾ c mini chocolate chips
- sanding sugar, optional
Instructions
- Line two baking sheets with parchment or baking mats and preheat oven to 375º F.
- Melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a microwave safe bowl for 1 minute, stir until smooth and set aside to cool.
- In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, brown sugar, molasses and vanilla until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and beat well.
- Beat in the melted chocolate.
- Then gradually beat in the flour mixture.
- Stir in the mini chocolate chips and cranberries.
- Using a 1 Tbs cookie scoop place dough 2" apart on the baking sheets, flatten them a bit with damp fingers and sprinkle the sanding sugar on the top of each cookie.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, cookies should be slightly puffed and begin to crisp around the edges.
- Cool on the baking sheets for 2 minutes.
- Then transfer to wire racks and cool completely.
Courses cookie, dessert
Curious about which cookies I received? Well let me just tell you I struck gold!
My first batch was a delicious Sausalito-type cookie from Lauren of Hall Nesting, if you follow me on Instagram then you probably saw them, they were AMAZING!
My second batch were a chocolate drizzled Macadamia Pecan Snowball cookie from Krystal of Home Made Austin, my daughter was particularly fond of the chocolate on top!
My final cookie arrived from Meriem of Culinary Couture, they were a chocolate hot cocoa cookie, I’m a total chico-holic so I may have only shared a few of them.
Thanks again to my cookie senders, I had such a fun time anticipating and receiving cookies from each of you sweet ladies!
I would have loved to receive a batch of these cookies in the mail, Emily! They look so good.
Hope you have a great week!
Thanks Julie, maybe we should trade cookies soon 🙂
These look delicious & what a fun, unique & tasty sounding combo! Pinning these 🙂
Thank you Krystal!
This was my first year I participated too! Love the cookies you made, Emily! They look awesome and the flavor combo sounds amazing!
Thanks Kelly, I ended up sharing them with a few friends in town as well as mailing 3 boxes, I love baking cookies this time of year 🙂
Yum, yum, yum! Love all the flavors here, Emily!
Thank you Shinee, I am so loving chocolate and gingerbread right now!