Housewarming Bakeathon: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookies

Photo courtesy of Matt Garza

Recently, Kevin, Dennis and I moved into a lovely townhouse closer to civilization in Houston. Meaning I have a whole new kitchen to make a mess of! And it's a lot bigger so I'll have to be even sloppier. To celebrate and remind ourselves and our bodies that we are no longer in our early 20s (a task we began by moving heavy things on Friday), we threw a little housewarming party this weekend. In order to mask that wonderful beer smell that would soon take over the house, I went on an eggless baking extravaganza featuring chocolate avocado cupcakes (reserve judgement on the weird sounding treat), snickerdoodles (previously seen for Mardi Gras) and chocolate covered strawberry cookies.


Eggless Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Servings: 18 cookies
Time: 40 minutes plus cooling

Sugar and strawberries

12 oz strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 tsp lemon juice
9 tbsp granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut pea-sized
2/3 cup heavy cream
Dark chocolate
White chocolate

Scone like cookies!

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Combine the strawberries, lemon juice and 2 tbsp sugar together.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and remaining 7 tbsp sugar together.
4. Cut or smash in the butter to the flour mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs. 
5. Add in the cream and stir until a dough forms.
6. Stir in the strawberry mixture.
7. Form the dough into balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown and have slightly hardened bottoms (this is key or they'll fall apart when you dip them in the chocolate).
9. Let cool on a wire rack.
10. Melt the dark and white chocolate separately using either a double boiler or a microwave on medium power in 30 second bursts.
11. Dip the cookies in the dark chocolate then sit them on top of a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
12. Drizzle the melted white chocolate on using a fork.
13. Let refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the chocolate set.

As a scientist, I can't help but ponder the hexagonal packing of cookies.

This was one freaking amazing cookie. The recipe is actually for strawberry shortcake cookies and makes for a very welcome scone-like cookie (just look at the recipe it's practically the same as when I made scones). The juicy strawberries really provide a refreshing dimension to the cookies (although they can negatively impact their structural integrity as witnessed by the chunk missing from the cookie above).  These would have been a stellar addition to my baking resume by themselves, but, as always, I couldn't settle for simple leading me to dip them in chocolate.

We hire only the fanciest servers like Jaime for our parties.

Originally, I wanted to make my chocolate peanut butter banana cookies (which are quite possibly the world's finest cookie save SusieCakes' whoopie pie), but new roomie Dennis' peanut allergy and the lack of self restraint he would've experienced when he smelled them ended that idea. But I still really wanted to dip a cookie in chocolate, so I went with the next best thing- chocolate covered strawberries. Having previously made a cupcake version of this, I was confident it would translate well to cookie form (surely a pie version must be next to complete the desserty trifecta). The chocolate indulgence definitely hit the spot as the hard outer shell complimented the moist and light inner cookie brilliantly especially since it was jam-packed with strawberries.

Professional brewer Dennis shamed himself by having trouble tapping the St. Arnold's keg he helped make.

These cookies were a huge hit at the party and definitely set the tone for the evening. Stay tuned for the mouth-watering finale to my first adventure in the new kitchen- chocolate avocado cupcakes. Will they be a smashing success or will the new oven confuse me and send the whole thing up in smoke? The clock is ticking as the party nears and I have a considerable mess to clean (stupid larger kitchen).

The delicious adventure continues with chocolate avocado cupcakes and snickerdoodles.