Dark Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies

Why You'll Love This Recipe

The taste. These Dark Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Cookies give you a little sweet, a little tart, and a hint of nutty flavor. It's the trifecta of flavor combos in cookie form!

The consistency. They have a crispy edge with a soft and fudgy inside. And each bite gives you a combo of semi-sweet chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and toasted Diamond of California chopped walnuts.

Perfect for any holiday cookie box! This recipe makes 36 cookies, making them a perfect addition to your holiday cookie boxes. Or you can simply make them to share with your family right at home!

No cookie dough chilling! And just like my Lemon Shortbread Cookies and my Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookies, there is zero chilling required of this cookie dough, so you can make them, bake them, then enjoy them!

Ingredients Needed

To make these dark chocolate cranberry walnut cookies, you will need the following ingredients:

• All-Purpose Flour. Use your favorite brand of flour. I didn't test this with any other kind.
• Unsweetened Dark Cocoa Powder. Regular unsweetened works just as well too.
• Baking Soda & Salt. Typical leavening agent you find in cookie recipes. The salt helps to round out the flavors and counteracts the bitterness with unsweetened dark cocoa.
• Unsalted Butter. Should be softened and at room temperature
• Sugars. You'll need granulated sugar or organic pure cane sugar and light brown sugar. The brown sugar, if using measuring cups, should be lightly packed.
• Eggs. You'll need two large, and they should be at room temperature.
• Vanilla Extract. Pure vanilla is best!
• Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips. You can also use milk chocolate in place of semi-sweet!
• Dried Cranberries. You can find these in the dried fruits section of your grocery store.
• Diamond of California Chopped Walnuts. Part of the Baker's Box from Diamond of California, which you can find at your nearest Costco! You get 3, 22-ounce bags—chopped walnuts, chopped pecans, and slivered almonds! Or you can get Costco's online exclusive Baker's Box which features macadamia nuts instead of slivered almonds. Definitely toast the walnuts before folding them into the cookie dough to bring out that beautiful fragrant flavor!

How to Make the Recipe

Below is a brief overview of how to make these easy dark chocolate cranberry walnut cookies.

Toast the chopped walnuts. This works best over medium heat in a small skillet. No oil is needed whatsoever! You want to toast them for about 5 minutes, continually stirring until they're fragrant and slightly darker from how they originally started. Don't leave them unattended because they will darken quickly.

Toasting the chopped walnuts is optional but does help to amplify their flavor when paired with the other ingredients.

Make the cookie dough. Whisk the dry ingredients together, then mix the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined. You can use either a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this part.

Fold in the rest. Use a spatula or spoon and stir in the semi-sweet chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and toasted Diamond of California chopped walnuts.

Scoop out the cookies and bake. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375ºF. I got 12 cookies to a baking sheet using my 1 ½ tablespoon size cookie scoop.

Let the cookies cool. Let them cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. They will be very soft, so use a spatula! For just baked perfectly round cookies, see my tips below!

Tips for Getting Perfectly Round Cookies

Use a cookie scoop. I used a 1 ½ tablespoon-size cookie scoop.

Use a circle cookie cutter. Immediately after the cookies have been baked, take a circle cookie cutter—or any circle object slightly larger than the diameter of the cookie—and in a circular motion, move the cookie cutter around the cookie until it forms a perfect circle.

For a more detailed step-by-step, you can check out my Salted Brownie Crinkle Cookies recipe!