After quite a long hiatus in which I switched jobs and careers, I am finally back in the baking game. Its been quite a long time coming. While I am still baking part-time, I hope to still post here consistently starting with redoing all of my old recipes that never saw the internet and my cookie series. Its my #cookieera and I am leaning into it.

White Chocolate Strawberry Cookies

Makes 20 Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature (226g)
1 cup brown sugar, packed (183g)
½ cup granulated sugar (106g)
2 large eggs, at room temperature (107g)
1 tbs vanilla bean paste/extract (12g)
2 ½ cups all purpose flour (354g)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 ½ container of freeze dried strawberries, crushed (49g)
¾ cup chopped white chocolate (96g)

Instructions

Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat, once melted transfer to mixing bowl.
Add in brown and granulated sugars to butter and mix on high for 2-3 min. The mixture will still look buttery.
In a different bowl mix your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda and powder).
Once the butter/sugar is no longer hot, add in eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.
Add in flour mixture and mix until combined.
Preheat your oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat.
At this stage the dough will look a little wet, let it rest for 15 min or more until the flour hydrates and the dough becomes more solid and playdoh like.
Divide the dough and place into two bowls, in one mix in the white chocolate and in the other mix in the crushed freeze-dried strawberries.
You can either grab a bit of each dough and roll into a ball or put both doughs into a cookie scoop to create uniform balls.
Bake for 8-10 min or until the edges are golden. Let cool on a baking sheet.

Tips

If you want more of a pink color on the strawberry side of the cookie, add in a drop at a time of pink food coloring until you get your desired color.
If the dough isn't holding shape when scooping, put in the freezer for ~10 min and increase total baking time to 10-13 min.
These cookies store well in the freezer for a fresh baked cookie whenever. Store in an airtight container or Ziploc.
White chocolate baking bars are recommended here over chocolate chips
If you don’t want the two flavors separated you can mix the freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate into the whole dough rather than dividing into two.