Double Chocolate Strawberry Cookies
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If you like chocolate and you like strawberries, you are going to LOVE these cookies.
These cookies use a new trick that I’ve been wanting to try out for a while: melting chocolate and mixing things into it, then allowing it to re-solidify and chopping it up to use as a mix in in your cookies. In this case, I melted white chocolate and mixed freeze dried strawberries into it. If I were to just mix the freeze dried strawberries into the cookie dough, the flavour would get lost. When they get mixed into the chocolate, the flavour bursts in each little pocket of chocolate AND the chocolate turns the prettiest pink colour, which makes these cookies not only delicious, but also beautiful! They are also PERFECT for Valentine’s Day/Galentine’s Day/Palentine’s Day or whatever version of the day you like to celebrate.
What do I need to make them?
Here’s your grocery list:
-Salted Butter
-Sugar
-Dark Brown Sugar
-Eggs
-All Purpose Flour
-Cocoa Powder (dutch)
-Baking Soda
-Salt
-Milk Chocolate Chips
-White Chocolate (couverture or chopped up good quality chocolate bar, like Ghirardelli)
-Freeze Dried Strawberries OR Freeze Dried Strawberry Powder
You will also need a kitchen scale , a stand or handheld mixer (or a bowl and a wooden spoon and some arm strength!), a few bowls, a spatula, a whisk, a couple baking sheets, parchment paper, a wire baking rack or two and a #16 cookie scoop if you want to make perfect uniform cookies.
Here’s how to make them:
You can find the full recipe below but I’ll go over the steps in a little extra detail here.
First, gather all of your tools & ingredients, and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
First, you’re going to pulverize your freeze dried strawberries. I like to do this in a food processor, but if you don’t have one, you can put them in a heavy duty ziploc bag (like a freezer bag) and smack them with a rolling pin. If you use a food processor, just pulse them with very quick pulses until you have smaller chunks and some powder. I like using whole or sliced freeze dried strawberries for this because the little bits left after you crush them provide some texture/crunch in the chocolate that I like, but if you can only find freeze dried strawberry powder, that will work just fine. Your chocolate just won’t have any texture.
Next, we’re going to make the strawberry flavoured white chocolate. Cover a small baking sheet with parchment paper. If you’re using a chocolate bar, chop it up roughly and place it in a heatproof bowl. If using couverture chocolate that is already in small pieces/callets, place it in your heatproof bowl as-is. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir the chocolate gently until melted. Add your crushed freeze dried strawberries or strawberry powder and stir until it is evenly mixed, then scrape out the chocolate onto your prepared baking sheet. Spread it out into a layer that is about 1/4” thick and place it in the freezer to solidify. Once solid, chop it up roughly into large chunks and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Next, you’re going to add your softened butter, sugar & brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat those on medium speed until they are fully combined. You don’t want to beat too long or you’ll end up with cakey cookies. Alternatively, if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a handheld mixer or a just a bowl and a wooden spoon.
While your butters and sugars are mixing, crack your eggs into a separate small bowl and add your vanilla extract to the same bowl.
With the mixer running on medium speed, add 1 egg. Wait until it looks fully incorporated, then add the next. Stop your mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula (you can find my favourite sprinkle spatula here!), then mix again for a few seconds.
Whisk together your flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
Add flour mixture to mixer bowl and mix on low speed until JUST incorporated. You’ll probably still see a few bits of unmixed flour. That’s ok.
Take your bowl off the mixer, add your milk chocolate chips and strawberry chocolate chunks and use your spatula to scrape around the edges and bottom of your bowl to mix in your chocolate and make sure there are no rogue unmixed bits of butter or sugar or flour. Everything should be completely uniform. Alternatively, you can use clean hands to do this step (I’m also a big fan of this method - this way you can feel very easily whether or not your dough is completely mixed) the strawberry chocolate is very soft, so make sure you are mixing gently so you don’t break it up too much.
Using your #16 cookie scoop, scoop ontoyour parchment covered baking trays. You should be able to fit about 10 on a standard baking tray. Leave a few inches between each cookie. Alternatively, you can use your hands to form the dough into balls about 3” in diameter.
If you want bigger, thinner cookies you can give your cookies a light squish before you put them in the oven. If you want your cookies to be thicker, don’t squish them at all. Bake at 350 C for 7-9 minutes, just until there are no wet spots on top of the cookies. Chocolate based dough dries out very quickly, so be sure not to overbake.
When the cookies come out of the oven, push a few of the extra pieces of strawberry chocolate gently into the tops of each cookie, then leave the tray to cool on top of a wire rack. The chocolate will melt slightly and stick to the cookies as they cool.
Let cookies cool completely and store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days or in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
Ready to bake them?
Double Chocolate Strawberry Cookies
Ingredients
- 275g White Chocolate (couverture or good quality chocolate bar like Ghirardelli or Callebeaut)
- 45g Freeze Dried Strawberries (sliced, whole, or powder - see notes)
- 350g All Purpose Flour
- 6g (1 tsp) Baking Soda
- 3g (1 tsp) Sea Salt
- 70g Dutch Cocoa Powder
- 225g Salted Butter (Room Temperature)
- 230g Granulated Sugar
- 200g Brown Sugar
- 2 Eggs (Room Temperature)
- 10g (2 tsp) Vanilla Extract
- 100g Milk Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Prepare a baking sheet by covering it in parchment paper. Crush your freeze dried strawberries by pulsing them in a food processor or putting them in a heavy duty ziploc bag (like a freezer bag) and smacking them with a rolling pin until they are very small pieces (like grains of rice) and some powder. If you are using freeze dried strawberry powder, skip this step.
- Chop up your white chocolate if it's not already in pieces and place it in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water and stir gently with a silicone spatula until the chocolate is completely melted. Add your crushed or powdered freeze dried strawberries & stir until completely incorporated, then scrape all the chocolate out onto your baking tray and spread it out to about 1/4" thick. Put the tray in the freezer to set.
- Once your chocolate is set, take it out and roughly chop it into large chunks. Put it back in the freezer or the fridge until you are ready to use it.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F and prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Set aside.
- Put butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a mixer bowl and beat on medium speed with a paddle attachment until smooth. Don’t beat for too long or you will get cakey cookies.
- Crack your eggs into a pitcher or bowl and add vanilla extract.
- With mixer running on medium speed, add your eggs one at a time, waiting until each is incorporated before adding the next.
- Stop your mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula. Mix again for a few seconds.
- Add your flour mixture to mixer bowl and mix on low speed until just incorporated.
- Remove your bowl from the mixer and add your milk chocolate chips & 200 g of strawberry chocolate chunks. Mix in by hand or with a spatula. Do not mix too much or the strawberry chocolate will break into small pieces. You want large chunks so you get delicious bursts of strawberry flavour in your cookies.
- Scoop with a #16 (2 oz) scoop onto a baking tray, leaving a couple of inches between each cookie. Squish your cookies SLIGHTLY and bake for 7-10 minutes. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Chocolate dough is really easy to overbake. You want the cookies to still be a little bit shiny on top when you take them out of the oven. This will give you a soft fudgy chocolate cookie rather than a dry one.
- Let the cookies cool on the tray on a baker’s rack or on top of a wire rack. Once cooled, cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in an airtight container in the freezer for several months.
