Soft Raspberry Cookies with chocolate: beautiful happy pink
These raspberry cookies are a soft tender raspberry crinkle cookie loaded with fresh raspberries and an optional dark chocolate heart center. They’re great for Valentine’s Day or if you just love raspberry and chocolate.
If you want a cookie with big raspberry flavor and blushy pink color without creepy dyes, this cookie is for you!
| Active time | Total time | Yield | Difficulty |
| 15 min | 1 hr 24 min | 24 cookies | Easy |
Why you’ll love these fresh raspberry cookies
- Big bright berry flavor: With fresh raspberries from puree and whole raspberries in the cookies, there’s a rich raspberry flavor.
- Delicate soft texture: Just like my soft sugar cookies, these raspberry cookies have a super soft tender texture that is just plain lovely to eat. They’re not quite a chocolate chip cookie and not quite a cakey cookie but something in between. These cookies are most similar to my lemon crinkle cookies.
- Dark chocolate was made for raspberries: If you taste a good dark chocolate, you should taste underlying berry flavors. That’s why dark chocolate goes so well with raspberries. Add that to the creamy lusciousness of the chocolate that pulls apart when these cookies are warm, and it’s like the best kind of molten chocolate cake in mini form.
- Gorgeous pink color with no creepy dyes: I’ve been working with natural dyes and whole fruits and flowers for a while to get dye-free colors. Here we don’t need any powders or any complicated ingredients–whole berries add all the delicate pink color. It may not be as bright as a pink dye would give you, but the color comes from a whole food, which let’s face it is better for you on principle anyways.
Why fresh raspberries are the secret to raspberry cookies’ beautiful pink color
Freeze dried berries vs. fresh |
Use for: |
|
Freeze dried raspberries |
frostings, sprinkles–anything not baked |
|
Fresh raspberries |
Cookie and cake batters, decorations |
There are a lot of raspberry cookie recipes out there that rely on freeze-dried raspberries for color, but that does not work here.
That’s because the pH of the dough and the heat of the oven will change the color of freeze dried raspberries to have a dull pale mauve.
Fresh raspberries on the other hand retain most of their color if you stir them into the batter. Additionally, the fresh raspberries have a brighter taste than the powder.
Freeze dried raspberries are great for frostings to add color and flavor. Since frostings are not cooked, the berries retain their bright color in these instances.
Ingredients for Raspberry Cookies
Raspberry Cookie Dough
- 2 cups frozen raspberries (280 g)
- Oil (preferably cold-pressed safflower or sunflower)
- Vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- Butter, at room temperature
- Granulated sugar
- Powdered sugar
- Egg
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Cream of tartar
- Salt
For finishing the cookies
- Powdered sugar
- Dove chocolate hearts or dark chocolate bar, chopped into big pieces
Equipment needed
- Fine mesh sieve
- 1/2 sheet pans
- Parchment paper
- 1 ounce cookie scoop (like Vollrath Black scoop) or a spoon
Step by step Process for making raspberry cookies
- Make raspberry puree: Cook down half the raspberries for a few minutes to release the seeds. Press the raspberries through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and pulp. Discard the seeds. Mix the raspberry puree with the oil and vanilla.
- Make the cookie dough: Beat the butter with the sugars. Slowly drizzle in the raspberry and oil mixture until everything is smooth. Beat in the egg and then the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda. When the flour is about half-mixed, stir in the rest of the frozen raspberries.
- Chill: Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Scoop and roll: Scoop balls of dough. Roll the balls in powdered sugar lightly. Chill for another 15 minutes.
- Bake: Roll the chilled balls in powdered sugar once again just before baking. Bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie. Bake for another 2 minutes.
- Cool: Cool the cookies for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Tips for making the best chocolate raspberry crinkle cookies
- Use frozen raspberries: Frozen raspberries are usually less expensive than fresh and they hold together a little better in this dough. Keeping the berries frozen also keeps the color from weeping too much.
- Double coat the dough balls: Dipping the dough balls twice in powdered sugar will give you the best crinkle texture on the outside of the cookies.
Variations on raspberry cookies
- Skip the chocolate: Take out the chocolate for the perfect Spring raspberry cookies.
- Blueberry cookies: Swap out the fresh raspberries for frozen blueberries instead.
- Raspberry chocolate chip cookies: Instead of the chocolate hearts, stir in 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips.
Soft Raspberry Cookies
- Total Time: about 1.5 hours
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
Description
Bright raspberry flavor in a soft sugar cookie meets dark chocolate hearts for a lovely Valentine’s cookie you’ll remember for a long time.
Ingredients
Raspberry Cookie Dough
- 2 cups frozen raspberries (280 g)
- 3 Tablespoons oil (preferably cold-pressed safflower or sunflower, see note) (45 mL)
- 1 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 1 sticks butter, at room temperature (113 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar (60 g)
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (276 g)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For baking and finishing
- 1 cup powdered sugar for rolling
- 24 Dove chocolate hearts, unwrapped (168 g) or 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips
Equipment
- Fine mesh sieve
- 1/2 sheet pans
- Parchment paper
- 1 ounce cookie scoop (like Vollrath Black scoop) or a spoon
Instructions
Make the raspberry puree
- Heat 1 cup of the berries over medium heat in a small pan. Once the berries have defrosted, simmer for 5 minutes. Take the raspberries off the heat and press the berries through a fine mesh sieve to strain out the seeds. You should have 3 Tablespoons of raspberry puree.
- Whisk the oil together with the vanilla and the raspberry puree.
Make the raspberry cookie dough
- Beat the butter in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer just to soften it. Slowly drizzle in the oil with the mixer on until you have a smooth mixture of butter and oil.
- Add in the sugars and beat to combine.
- Mix in the egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, and then mix for a few more seconds until you have a very smooth batter.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in another bowl.
- Add the flour and the rest of the raspberries to the mixer, and then beat until the flour just disappears. If you’re using mini chocolate chips instead of the chocolate hearts, mix them in at this point too.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Make the cookies
- Pour the powdered sugar for rolling into a pie plate or other shallow tray. Scoop out balls of dough with a cookie scoop or using a spoon. Roll the dough balls in the powdered sugar.
- Place the sugared dough balls in a tray and chill for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line 2 sheet trays with parchment .
Roll the dough balls in the powdered sugar.
Baking and finishing
- While the oven is heating up, take out the cold dough balls. Roll them in your hands to round off the shape, and then roll them again in powdered sugar.
- Place 8 balls on a sheet tray for baking.
- Loading up the oven with 2 sheet trays at a time, bake the cookies for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, rotate the sheet trays 180 degrees, and then swap the trays from top to bottom (or bottom to top as it were). Bake for 5 more minutes (10 minutes total).
- After 10 minutes, place a chocolate heart in the center of each cookie. Place the cookies back in the oven to bake for 2 more minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool for about 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. If you want to transport the cookies, you’ll need to wait until the chocolate hearts re-solidify. You can speed up this process by chilling the finished cookies.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
A note on oil: I’ve moved away from using industrial seed oils in my cooking. For these cookies, you really do want the softness that oil gives to baked goods. As such, try to use neutral unrefined, high oleic or cold pressed oils like safflower, sunflower. La Tourangelle makes some really good oils that will change how you think about oil. Olive oil is good too, though it gives these cookies a distinct Mediterranean flavor (add some lemon or orange zest if you do use olive oil and they’ll taste like Sicily).
Blueberry cookies: Swap out the raspberries for frozen blueberries.
Raspberry Crinkle Cookies: Skip the chocolate entirely for a pure raspberry cookie with soft pink color.
Raspberry Chocolate Chip cookies: Use mini chocolate chips instead of the chocolate hearts.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- +45 minutes chilling:
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
