Sunday, February 14, 2016

Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies


As a kid, we all loved monster cookies with lots of flavor. This particular cookie is swirled with raspberry preserves and chock full of decadent raspberry dark chocolate chunks and white chocolate chunks. Rich, flavorful and satisfying- all that we want in a cookie and then some.

These monster treats are sure to bring back memories. Kids at school were always curious and sometimes jealous of another's lunchbox treats. Some treats fell victim to the barter system and some were never traded. In addition, there was always one particular house that all the kids would
flock to after school due to the wonderful homemade treats and snacks  Be assured that these saucer cookies will not be traded. Also, presenting these are a sure fire way to meet all the friends of your son or daughter- even the ones you would rather not...

They have have a tri-texture from edge to center: crispy, cakey and chewy. One bite reveals raspberry and sweet chocolate. These are sinfully rich, perfect for your Valentine or just for yourself (I will not tell anyone). The recipe makes 12-14 very large cookies.

There are many adaptations of this cookie on the net, but the most helpful by far was Disney Chef. These require a little extra work in order to be successful, so be prepared to spend some time.

Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies
Adapted from Disney Chef, Baker Lady, Rumblytumbly..etc

Ingredients
10 oz seedless raspberry preserves
1 cup raspberry chocolate chips or chopped bar
1 cup white chocolate chunks
1 tbs water
1 egg
1 tsp raspberry extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 3/4 - 3 cups flour

Prepare 2 baking sheets by lining with parchment paper.

Sift together baking powder, 2 3/4 cup flour and salt into medium sized bowl. Take out a small bowl and fill with egg, water and extracts, whisk all together. Set both bowls aside.

Fill the bowl of a stand mixer with butter, confectioners sugar and brown sugar. Run the mixer on medium high speed and beat until mixture becomes fluffy. Continue to beat and pour in whisked mixture, running mixer until thoroughly blended.

Remove bowl from stand mixer and fold 1/2 cup of sifted ingredients into batter. Continue with this process until all is folded together. Then, evaluate the dough. The dough should be thick and heavy.  If you find it too dry, add some water or too wet, add additional flour (up to 1/4 cup). Fold in both types of chocolate chunks, making sure chunks are blended evenly throughout the dough.

Separate out 1/4 of the batter and place the rest in the refrigerator. Prepare a piping bag by fitting with a large tip. Fill the bag with 2 oz of preserves. Drizzle some of the preserves into the batter and use a pastry cutter to fold and cut the dough. Repeat the process until all the preserves have been incorporated into the dough. You want swirls or spots of raspberry, so you are not to mix it so much that it changes the color of the dough.

Form the dough into 4 equal balls and place on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 15-25 minutes. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Also, prepare a baking sheet by lining with parchment paper.

Once oven is preheated and dough is properly chilled, place 4 dough balls on baking sheet. Space evenly on sheet. Let cookies bake at 400 degrees for 2 minutes. Lower the oven to 350 degrees and let them continue to bake for another 14 to 17 minutes or until done. Remove from oven and let
cookies rest on pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to remain for another 30 minutes to completely cool.

Repeat the same process with the rest of the dough, which will be 3 more batches.

Tips and Notes:

1. These cookies are better the next day due to the texture.
2. Do not use raspberry jam, it will make your batter too watery and cookies brown too much
3. Doneness of cookie is a little difficult since cookies retain a shiny, sticky appearance, so monitor closely. A golden hue on the bottom as well as edges is a good sign.
4. If you are using a stronger flavoring for the raspberry (Lorann brand) than the vanilla, make sure you adjust the amount so the flavor is balanced between the two.
5. Because the success of this recipe depends very much on consistency of the batter, it took me more than 1 batch of four to have these come out correctly (not so much taste wise, but appearance wise)
6. Raspberry chocolate chips are not easy to find, yet if you go to a place that has specialty food items (I went to World Market) you can find dark chocolate with raspberry bits. Make sure you buy bars with the bits, not the ones with a raspberry liquid center.
                                  **LAST YEAR: Lemon Pull Apart Coffee cake**