Strawberry and Cream Cookies
Strawberries and cream cookies are soft, chewy white chocolate cookies studded with home-dried strawberries. The dried fruit is the whole point. Drying concentrates the strawberry flavour and drives off the water that would otherwise leak into the dough and turn a chewy cookie damp. It also saves strawberries that may have gone a bit past thier best from going in the bin. Dried to the point where they are still pliable, they hold their shape, keep their colour and taste far more of strawberry than they did fresh. The skimmed milk powder is the quiet hero here, lending the malty, faintly creamy note that earns the cookies their name and helping them brown.
Strawberry and Cream Cookies
Soft, chewy white chocolate cookies packed with home-dried strawberries. Drying the fruit first concentrates the flavour and keeps the dough chewy, not damp.
Ingredients
- 600g strawberries, hulled and quartered
- 170g unsalted butter, melted
- 180g light brown sugar
- 70g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla bean paste (about 10g)
- 280g plain flour
- ½ tsp baking powder (about 2g)
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (about 2.5g)
- ½ tsp fine sea salt (about 3g)
- 25g skimmed milk powder
- 200g good-quality white chocolate, chopped
- 50g home-dried strawberries, roughly chopped (from the batch above)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 90°C fan (100°C conventional). Lay the strawberry slices in a single layer on a lined tray and dry for 2 to 3 hours, or until they feel like soft dried fruit, pliable and slightly chewy rather than crisp or wet. They firm up again once baked into the dough, so stop while they still have some give. Cool completely, then chop and weigh out 50g.
- Melt the butter gently in a saucepan, then leave it for 10 to 15 minutes until warm rather than hot. You want it melted, not creamed; that is what keeps the cookies chewy instead of cakey.
- Whisk the warm butter with both sugars for 1 to 2 minutes until glossy. Add the egg, yolk and vanilla and whisk again until the mixture thickens slightly.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and milk powder. Fold into the wet mixture until just combined.
- Fold through the white chocolate and dried strawberries. The dough will be fairly soft.
- Cover and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Heat the oven to 170°C fan (190°C conventional) and line 4 trays with baking paper. The cookies need plenty of room to spread, so if you dont have 4 trays, work in batches.
- Roll the dough into balls roughly the size of a walnut in its shell, for 16 cookies. Space them well apart to allow for spread.
- Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, checking from 10 minutes. The edges should be set and pale gold while the centres still look slightly underdone.
- Bang the tray firmly on the counter once to settle the cookies.
- Leave on the tray for at least 15 minutes to finish setting.
Nutrition Facts
Carbs
39 gFat
13 gCalories
290Protein
4 gSugar
26 gApproximate values per cookie
Ingredient Notes
Strawberries
This is a good use for a glut or for fruit a little past its best for eating raw. Slice them evenly so they dry at the same rate. The recipe dries 600g for a comfortable margin, though 400g will get you the 50g you need; treat it as flexible.
White chocolate
Use a good-quality white chocolate with real cocoa butter rather than a cheap cooking variety, which tastes flatter. Good chips are perfect and hold their shape into neat pockets; if you prefer a mix of molten pools and finer shards, chop a bar instead. Either works, the quality is what matters.
Skimmed milk powder
Not optional if you want the cream character. It adds the milky, malted note and extra browning. It lives in the baking aisle or with the hot drinks.
Butter
Melting rather than creaming is deliberate. Melted butter coats the flour differently and gives a denser, chewier crumb. Let it cool to warm before mixing so it does not cook the egg.
Sugars
The high proportion of light brown sugar is what keeps these moist and chewy; its molasses holds water. The caster sugar gives a little crispness at the edges.
Kitchen Notes
Dry the strawberries until pliable, not crisp
If they are still wet they bleed into the dough; if crisp they turn to dust and lose the chew. Aim for the texture of a soft dried apricot. They firm up again in the oven. If you have a dehydrator, dry them overnight on a low setting, around 70°C.
Warm butter, not hot
Melt it, then walk away for ten minutes. Pour hot butter onto sugar and egg and you risk a greasy, cakey result.
Rest the dough
An hour in the fridge firms the butter and hydrates the flour, which means less spread and a better texture. Longer is fine, even overnight.
Sizing the balls
Roll them to about the size of a walnut in its shell, which gives 16. They are meant to stay soft in the middle, so keep them generous rather than small, and weigh if you want them even.
Pull them early
The centres should look slightly underdone. Start checking at 10 minutes and pull them somewhere between 10 and 14, depending on your oven. They carry on cooking on the hot tray, and that residual heat is what sets the chew.
The bang
Knocking the tray once as they come out collapses the domed centre into ripples and a denser crumb.
Variations
Strawberry and dark chocolate
Swap the white chocolate for a 60 to 70% dark. You lose the cream note but gain a sharper contrast against the fruit.
Freeze-dried shortcut
No time to dry your own? Fold in about 20 to 25g freeze-dried strawberry pieces and skip the first step entirely. They are dry, intensely flavoured and crisp, so they will not add chew, and they may tint the dough pink as they hydrate.
Brown butter
Take the melted butter a step further to nut-brown, then cool. It deepens everything and pairs beautifully with the strawberry.
Lemon
A little lemon zest in the dough lifts the strawberry and cuts the sweetness of the white chocolate.
Serving Suggestions
How to serve
Best just slightly warm, when the white chocolate is still soft and the strawberries are jammy.
Make ahead and storing
The dough balls freeze well: open-freeze on a tray, then bag them, and bake from frozen with a two mnutes. Baked cookies keep in an airtight tin for 3 to 4 days or freeze them in freezer bags; defrost them fully and then warm in the oven briefly.
Zero Waste
This recipe uses one whole egg plus a yolk, leaving a white over. Freeze it in a labelled tub; three or four build up quickly into meringues, financiers or a batch of macarons.
FAQ
Can I use fresh strawberries instead of dried in strawberries and cream cookies? No. Fresh strawberries release water as they bake, which makes the cookies soggy and pale. Dry them first, or use freeze-dried.
Why are my cookies cakey instead of chewy? Usually the butter was creamed or still hot when mixed, or the dough was over-mixed. Melt the butter, cool it to warm, and fold the dry ingredients in just until combined.
Can I use freeze-dried strawberries? Yes. Use about 20 to 25g of freeze-dried pieces and skip the drying step. They are more intense and will tint the dough pink.
Can I freeze the dough? Yes. Open-freeze the rolled balls, then bag them, and bake from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes.
How long do they keep? In an airtight tin, 3 to 4 days. They are at their best on the first day.
