Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies

Deep and moist raspberry and white chocolate cookies which hold a raspberry surprise inside every one and are surrounded by nuggets of white chocolate, with a white chocolate drizzle.

Well I was in quandary as to what to bake for the blog this week. Could not decide for the life of me. Then the shopping was delivered and lo an behold we ended up with some else's raspberries. Yes, I know I should do the right thing and 'fess up once I'd realised. But, quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered. I told my conscience to butt out and reminded it that I am good and loyal customer and so really they owe me a free punnet of raspberries now and again. But ... I do feel a bit guilty...a bit...

So to easy my bleeding conscience over this heinous crime, I decided to interpret this as celestial sign to bake with raspberries this week. Problem solved.

And, being as my current fad is white chocolate, it seemed only right to nuzzle these two together inside a lovely soft cookie. Raspberries and white chocolate are THE best combo.

So, in all honestly, I had never made these raspberry and white chocolate cookies before. Therefore, I did lots of rather enjoyable cookie research. This also involved watching many cookie baking YouTubes whilst on the treadmill at the gym. Ironic. Anyway....drum roll please... as a result I am truly confident that these little beauts are the BEST EVER raspberry and white chocolate cookies!

And why? Well because there are a few little secrets to follow which I will share with you 🤫...

The golden rules for perfect cookies

So as I keep saying baking is a science. Measurements in baking must be exact. If a recipe asks for 1 teaspoon of an ingredient it means not only just 1 teaspoon it means 1 level teaspoon. If your butter is not soft enough when creamed with sugar for a cake recipe it will be over aerated and the cake may turn out a bit of a dud. I could go on and on.

So for PERFECT squidgy, gooey, thick raspberry and white chocolate cookies you need to just follow these magic rules:

Butter must be room temperature: NOT overly soft. You should be able to press it together quite easily but it should not be like goo. For want of a better word. Overly soft butter will give you cookies as flat as pancakes.

Don't over beat your butter and sugar: 2-3 minutes is enough on a medium setting, when ready it will be soft, paler and easily spreadable. Too much beating will leave your dough too aerated and you will end up with duff cookies. For want of a better word.

Freeze the cookie dough for 10 mins before baking: you will probably find that by the time you get to rolling your last cookie they have become quite warm. If cookie dough is too soft it'll flatten as soon as it hits the oven and you will have very flat cookies. So pop them in the freezer for 10 mins before baking.

Use a heavy based baking sheet: try to use a thick based baking sheet for cookies if you can. Also, ensure your baking sheet is cold. Run cold water over it or pop it in the fridge to cool before using. Again this ensures they don't flatten out.

Don't grease your baking sheet: it will give you greasy cookies. Just line with greaseproof paper (baking parchment).

Ensure your baking tray is cold if reusing: if, like me, you don't possess a huge baking tray you will need to bake these cookies in batches. When one batch comes out cool your baking tray down as above before reusing.

Don't put your cookies too close together: these little guys need a little space to relax and spread their wings. Nothing more annoying than a sheet of merged cookies. If you only have one tin just bake them in batches. Keep the rolled cookie dough balls in the fridge whilst you wait to bake the next batch.

What makes these Raspberry and White Chocolate Cookies EXTRA SPECIAL?

Freeze dried raspberry pieces: these are wonderful! Just a 9g tube is enough (they sell these in Sainsburys) or you can buy them from Amazon.

A raspberry is hidden away inside each cookie! So what I love about this is:

• it gives the cookie a unique almost pudding like flavour;
• the hit of PROPER raspberry works really well against the sweetness of the cookie and white chocolate;
• the raspberry flavour does not get mushed up with all of the other flavours in the cookie because it is one zingy raspberry hit in the middle;
• stirring raspberries into the cookie dough invariably means they break up, and you end up with pink, wet dough, these cookies don't suffer from that problem;
• when stirring raspberries into the dough you introduce a lot of moisture, which in turn produces flat pancake cookies, again we ain't got that problem here.

Cornflour: cornflour makes your cookies lovely and chewy, it is a real necessity if you want to ensure your raspberry and white chocolate cookies have the right texture.

Make up a batch, freeze and use them when you are ready!

Freeze your cookie dough and bake up when needed: roll the dough up into balls, pop into a freezer bag and bake those beauties as and when you need them! No need to thaw. Just bake for a few more minutes than the recipe states.

Storage: these cookies are best eaten on the day but will last another day in an airtight container.

How to make Raspberry and White Chocolate cookies

Once you have everything weighed out and ready these cookies take just minutes to make.

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First, mix together your butter and sugar using a stand mixer or hand mixer until light, pale and spreadable. With my hand mixer this took 2-3 minutes until light and creamy.

Next, add your vanilla extract and your egg and 1 dessert spoon of flour and beat again until combined.

Then beat in the rest of our flour on a low setting. Once all of the flour is incorporated speed up the mixer to medium-high but stop beating just as your mixture starts to form clumps.

Pop in your chopped chocolate and dried raspberries and give a gentle mix with a wooden spoon.

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Divide the dough into 18 balls. Take a ball and flatten it to about a depth of about 1 cm. Each cookie needs about 4 or 5 chunks of chocolate so ensure each one has this many, or you might find the recipient feels a bit hard done to! If you need more chocolate just take a chunk from the mixture and press it into the dough. Then take a fresh raspberry, pop it into the centre and fold the cookie dough gently around to seal inside. Roll the cookie around your palm to form a ball again.

Place on your lined baking tray and pop into your freezer for no more than 10 minutes.

Bake in the centre of your oven for 12 minutes. The cookies will be golden at the edges when done. Leave to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Melt your topping chocolate. I do this in my microwave in bouts of 5 or 10 seconds, stirring in between until all has melted. Dip a teaspoon into the chocolate and hold high above the cookie and drizzle the chocolate all over.

For more white chocolate baked goodies try my Jammy Dodger Blondies with White Chocolate.

Perfection! Please do comment below to let me know how you got on making these Raspberry and White Chocolate cookies. Happy Baking! x