Today, I’m debuting my latest kitchen creation – these no bake cranberry pecan praline cookies! After years of making my amazing no bake coconut pecan praline cookies (linked at the bottom of this post), I decided to try something different this holiday season and use cranberries rather than the coconut. It makes for a delightful holiday spin on these easy no bake cookies!
Stove Top No Bake Cranberry Pecan Praline Cookie Mixture
First, I combine pecans and cranberries in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, I mix sugar, corn syrup, evaporated milk and the stick of butter. Both salted and unsalted butter have worked with no issues. However, I tend to only buy unsalted butter for my kitchen since salted butter burns more easily than unsalted butter.
At this point, I remove the saucepan from the hot burner and add the vanilla, pecans, and cranberries.
I stir, stir, stir for four minutes. And let me tell you – it’s a long four minutes! My arms get so tired! The Hubs usually gets called in for sous chef duty at this point.
Notice this recipe does not call for a candy thermometer. You will need to closely monitor the cook minutes for each step.
Customize Sizes of No Bake Cranberry Pecan Praline Cookies
By spoonfuls, I drop the cranberry pecan cookie batter onto wax or parchment paper. I use my medium cookie scoop when I want smaller no bake cookies (pictured here). When I want bigger cookies, I use my ice cream scoop and spoon the batter about 3/4s full.
At this point, I wait for 30 minutes or so until the cranberry pecan praline no bake cookies cool before removing or eating. It might be best to give them several hours until they are firm enough to handle and not overly sticky. My batches usually make anywhere from 25 to 36 cookies, depending on which scoop I use.
To Salt or Not to Salt
Given that one of my other delicious cranberry cookie recipes involves a dusting of sea salt, I decided to give this no bake cookie a slight dusting of fine sea salt as soon as they were scooped onto the parchment paper. This is entirely optional, but I love the combination explosion of the tart cranberries, the super sweet batter, the crunchy pecans, and the slight salt on top.
The tops and centers will be full of nutty berry texture.
No-Bake Cranberry Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups Pecans chopped
- 2 cups Craisins Or other brand of dried cranberries
- ½ cup Butter one stick unsalted butter
- 2½ cups Sugar
- ½ cup Evaporated milk
- ½ cup Corn Syrup Both light or dark corn syrup are fine
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine pecans and cranberries and set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter with the sugar, the evaporated milk, and the corn syrup on medium heat.
- Bring the butter mixture to a boil. Once at a boil, allow it to boil for exactly three minutes. Stir several times during this three minutes.
- Remove the mixture from heat.
- Add the vanilla and the pecan mixture to the mixture.
- Stir fast and consistently for exactly four minutes.
- After four minutes drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper or parchment paper.
- Allow the cookies to set for at least 30 minutes to an hour to set.
Notes
Nutrition
These no bake cranberry pecan praline cookies are delicious! They are super rich so these are the kind of treats I designate for special occasions.
More Wonderful Cookie Recipes from Planted in Arkansas
No Bake Coconut Pecan Praline Cookies
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cookies with Oatmeal
White Chocolate Chip and Oatmeal Almond Cookies
Cranberry White Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with Snickers
No Bake Cranberry Pecan Cookies with Pecans
White Chocolate Oreo Bars with Marshmallows
Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies
Dian
I would like to drastically cut the sugar in these – do you think they would still be good with 1/2 the sugar?
The Gifted Gabber
Hmmm…that’s a tough one. I have never attempted this recipe (or my other similar no bake recipe) without sugar. I think the sugar and the butter do make an important part of the set up mixture. Perhaps if you tried the recipe with something like coconut sugar or one of the In the Raw products, it might have a chance of working. But I honestly do not know! Good luck! Please let me know if you try an alternate method and it works for you!
The Gifted Gabber
Sorry I didn’t read correctly. I thought you were asking about leaving out the sugar completely. I think you could probably get away with reducing some of the sugar – maybe 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup and see what happens.