Strawberry Truffle Chocolate Cookies : 25 Steps (with Pictures)

I don't know about you, but I. am. over. Christmas.

It may be January and you just started your detox routine, but if you hit the grocery store...oh yes, the Valentine's Day displays are already up, and already reminding you wayyy ahead of time to not forget.Even though I am still recuperating from all that holiday sweets a few weeks ago, the thought of chocolate covered strawberries is still welcoming. The thought of a luscious red berry smothered in chocolate? Yum.

This could possibly be a cutest Valentine's day cookie that can be shared with everyone, and it's made by you!

Can You Cookie It?

Disclaimer: This cookie recipe is MY, GO-TO recipe I concocted for a decade. It is different from other cookie recipes out there because of the different ratios and other added ingredients such as cornstarch. It may seem odd, but it leaves you with the crispest exterior, fluffy soft, bendy cookies. Even without the truffle center, this cookie is good it's own. It's soft, fudgey interior is still enough to impress a die-hard cookie or brownie lover.

Step 1: F.A.Q

So you already know my inspiration behind it. But how can we envision this idea as a cookie?

Well, it definitely must have a strawberry or strawberry-like center and surrounded by a chocolate exterior. Initially, I literally wanted a strawberry stuffed inside a cookie. But that would post some problems, such as excessive moisture from the fruit ripening and/or from the sugars in the cookie that will somehow macerate the berry. If you ever take a look at a cross section of a chocolate covered strawberry, there is some condensation in between the fruit and the chocolate. Moisture could also comes from heat, if a fruit is exposed to high heat like in an oven, it starts cooking right away (even if it just a few short minutes). Thirdly, having a fresh fruit means it's going to deteriorate quickly at room temperature. All in all, having a fresh fruit in a cookie is just not going to work out.

How about current existing recipes like stuffed Nutella or cream cheese interior?

Nutella is great and all, but that's not the idea of this cookie. Cream cheese is great too but dairy goes bad quickly at room temperature. This leaves me to one idea: Truffles. More specifically, a Ganache truffle. The structure of a ganache can be modified into a looser liquid state, firm or even whipped. Essentially made from a ratio of chocolate to cream to butter. It can be frozen, thawed and baked for short periods. It works.

Why freeze-dried strawberries?

Because freeze-dried strawberries taste exactly the same as fresh strawberries sans the water content. You could also use an extract but I always though strawberry extract has a strange artificial taste and smell which doesn't appeal to me personally.

Can I modify this recipe?

Of course. Prefer a peppermint ganache truffle? Brilliant. You can modify the flavor of the truffle or change the cookie exterior but keep the ratio I have presented the same as this ensures the cookie stays the same shape and the chances of it melting into an odd mess is unlikely.

via GIPHY

Step 2: Ingredients for the Chocolate Cookie

Ingredients:

1 stick of salted butter, room temperature

3/4 cups of dark brown sugar

1/4 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2 tsp of salt

2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 egg + 1 yolk

1/2 teaspoon of espresso powder (optional)

1 and 1/2 cups cups of all purpose flour

1/4 + 2 tablespoon of natural cocoa powder

3 teaspoon of cornstarch

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 cup of Mini chocolate chips

1/2 cup of roughly chopped semi-sweet chocolate chunks (for topping ONLY)

Maldon Sea salt flakes (for finishing)

Step 3:

Begin by sifting your dry ingredients such as cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch and baking soda. This will ensure there will be no lumps of cocoa or white pockets of flour in your cookie.

Step 4:

In a stand mixer or a large bowl, combined your soften butter, brown and white sugar, salt, espresso and vanilla extract. Using a paddle attachment, cream the ingredients for 10 minutes on low/medium speed until creamy and fluffy.

Then add your egg and yolk one at a time and mix till homogeneous. Scrape the sides and mix for another 10 seconds. Do not over mix.

Step 5:

Pour your sifted dry ingredients at one go and mix it till there's no traces of flour. Add in your mini chocolate chips and mix it again for another 5 seconds. Do not overmix your cookie dough.

Step 6:

Store you cookie dough in a plastic container with a lid and refrigerate.

Refrigerate your cookie dough for 48 hours. You heard me right! 2 DAYS.I will explain why at the very end of the post.

Step 7: Alternative Approach: Fruity Pebbles Milk Cookie

Because why not? I thought the strawberry truffle would compliment fruity pebbles because of it's fruity nature. Also because I want to experiment to see which cookie would provide me the best flavor profile. Let's proceed!

Step 8: Ingredients for the Fruity Pebbles Cookie

Ingredients:

1 stick of salted butter, room temperature

1 cup of white granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 egg + 1 yolk

1 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoon of milk powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

3 teaspoon of cornstarch

1 cup of fruity pebbles cereal

Step 9:

Combine your butter, white granulated sugar, salt and vanilla extract in a stand mixer or a large bowl. Start creaming them at low/medium speed for 10 minutes until fluffy.

Add in your egg and yolk one at a time and continue mixing until homogeneous. Scrape the sides of your bowl. Pour in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and cornstarch all at the same time and mix until no traces of flour.

Step 10:

Then add in your fruit pebbles and mix them for JUST 4 seconds. You want them incorporated evenly into your cookie dough but not overly crushed the cereal to dust.

Once mixed, store in a plastic container with a lid and refrigerate the cookie dough for 48 hours.

Step 11: Date Your Cookie Dough

Now because we are storing these cookie dough for 48 hours (yes, that is quite some time), it is important to date them so you will remember when the dough was made.

Step 12: For the Strawberry Truffle

Ingredients:

200g of white chocolate (i used a combo of bar and chips)

1/4 cup of heavy cream

2 tablespoon of unsalted butter

1/3 cup of freeze dried strawberries, crushed to dust ( a few chips here and there is fine)

Pink gel food coloring (optional)

Directions:

Use a drop of food coloring and color your whipping cream.

Step 13: Double Boil Your Chocolate

Fill a pot with an inch of water and turn on the heat on medium heat until it starts steaming.

Place you bowl of white chocolate and butter over the pot, ensuring the water doesn't touch the bowl. Heat the chocolate until it starts melting a third of the way.

Then pour in your heavy cream and let it warm up as well for 5 minutes.

Step 14:

When your cream has warm up. Turn off the heat and remove your bowl away from the heat source. Gently stir your chocolate mixture until it is smooth and creamy.

Pour in your strawberry dust and mix until even.

Pour into a heat proof bowl, cover with a saran wrap (ensure the saran touches the surface to prevent skinning) and refrigerate the ganache until cold and firm. You could place them in the freezer as well to hasten the cooling and firming.

Step 15:

Once cooled and firmed, spoon about a big tablespoon worth of ganache and roll them into balls. Then with your palm, gently press them down so it flattens a little.

Place your tray of truffles into the freezer till they are completely harden.

Store them in an airtight container and continue to store them in the freezer until cookies are ready to bake. The airtight container will prevent the truffles from adsorbing scents from freezer.

Step 16: Prep Your Cookies!

Before we start rolling the cookies, ensure to thaw out your cookie dough for a few minutes (10-15 mins) so they soften a little to make rolling easier.

Step 17: Rolling

Scoop about 1 tablespoon worth of cookie dough and flatten them till they are about 1/4 inch thick. Place 1 truffle inside and cover it with a little more cookie dough. Ensure to roll and seal the seams shut or they may leaked out during baking. Continue until you reach your desire number of cookies.

Your cookie dough balls should be about 2 inches wide and 1.5 inch thick.

You can also make this ahead and roll all of the cookies and store them in the freezer for future baking.

Step 18:

Each cookie dough ball is roughly 1.8 inches wide and 1.5 inch tall, more or less. Try to keep within this dimension so your cookies will be baked about the same time as instructed.

Step 19: Dressing Your Cookie Dough

After rolling, it is highly encouraged that you placed a few roughly chopped semi sweet chocolate chunks and press some fruit pebbles cereal unto your cookie dough. It gives the cookie a nice melty finish or a crunchy exterior.

Freeze your cookie dough balls for 5 minutes before baking.

Step 20: Preheat You Oven and Your Pan

While the cookie dough balls are hardening in the freezer, preheat your oven to 370 Fahrenheit together with a baking tray lined with parchment paper. By doing so, your tray will be hot enough to cook and brown the bottom of your cookie dough quickly.

Once preheated, placed your frozen cookie dough balls and bake at respective times below:

Chocolate cookie: 370 Fahrenheit (188 Celsius), 10 Minutes FLAT.

Fruity Pebbles: 370 Fahrenheit (188 Celsius), 12 Minutes FLAT.

Once baked, lightly salt you chocolate cookies with Maldon sea salt flakes and let it cool for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Step 21: For Non-filled Cookies

Scoop about 1 big tablespoon worth of dough and roll it into a smooth ball. It should be size of a ping pong ball. Flatten them slightly and placed some roughly chopped semi sweet chocolate chunks on top before baking. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes flat.

To Bake cookies WITHOUT truffle interior (about 1.5 inch flatten balls):

Chocolate cookie: 350 Fahrenheit (176 C) for 10 Minutes FLAT.

Fruity Pebbles: 350 Fahrenheit (176 C) for 10 Minutes FLAT.

Once baked, remove from oven. Sprinkle some Maldon sea salt flakes and cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Step 22: Why 48 Hours?!?!

So as promised, I am going to explain to you why I rest my cookie dough for 48 hours. Trust me, all that waiting will be a game changer. It makes your cookie taste, feel and look far more superior than her's ;)

(The photo i attached here says it all. The above picture rested for 4 hours vs the bottom which have rested for 48 hours.)

We all have heard resting your cookie dough is important. But why is it important? and damn why so long?!

1) The fat (aka butter) in your cookie dough will have time to fully harden up. The harder and colder your fat is, the longer it will take to melt in your hot oven. A warm soft butter will start melting way too quickly and start spreading unevenly, leaving you with irregular circular shapes. Whereas cold butter will melt slower and more gradually, leaving you pretty, evenly shaped thick cookies.

2) The sugar have time to dissolve and get adsorb into the flour. Sugar is a wet ingredient, not dry. It dissolves when it comes in contact with moisture (your butter, eggs, vanilla). When you bake your cookie dough too quickly, it doesn't give the sugar a chance to get adsorb into the flour; and once baked your cookie has a grainy texture and mouthfeel.

3) It relaxes your gluten and time to adsorb flavors. A freshly mixed and baked cookie dough has a very chewy texture because the protein strands from the gluten is still tight and compact. It also have a raw floury taste despite being cooked all the way through. Whereas a rested dough, has a softer fluffier texture, taste sweeter and have a robust flavor.

Need I say more? Trust me, it will change your life.