Strawberry cookies with raw cacao drizzle

Have you ever had a ball sack so full, you kind of need to do something about it? That question has nothing to do with this recipe but if I still have you attention, you must really want to make these cookies. And I don’t blame you. They’re absolutely amazing for several reasons, the main one being that they’re strawberry all way through and not just flavored with pieces of it. I mean, these are virtually made from strawberries!

The ingredients for about 20 cookies

• 250 grams of all-purpose flour
• 250 grams of fresh strawberries (or any berries and soft fruits really)
• 2 grams of baking soda
• 170 grams of unsalted butter, melted
• 220 grams of packed brown sugar (the wet kind, that has a lot of molasses flavor to it, often sold by the name muacovado sugar)
• 100 grams of regular caster sugar
• 15 ml of vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 5 grams of salt
• 70 grams of raw cacao mass, the block used to make chocolate. It’s not dark chocolate, it’s not chocolate yet, it’s just a butter cacao block consisting of cacao solids and fats.
• 30 grams of cocoa butter. Not white chocolate, just pure coca butter. You can use it to make cosmetics and you can use it to make white chocolate and you can use it for this recipe.

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter without browning it.
2. Remove the calyx (the green leafy thing) from the strawberries, and set three of the strawberries aside for later.
3. Mix the strawberries into a purée (not the ones you set aside for later although now is technically later)
4. Add the purée into the melted butter and raise the heat until it starts boiling. Keep stirring often. At first, it will be a uniform pinkish custard like consistency. But as water evaporates, and only the strawberry pulp and the fats from the butter remain, it will separate. The fat will now taste like strawberries and everything is good. Don’t drink it!
5. In a large bowl, preferably a stand mixer one if you’re going to use a stand mixer, combine packed brown sugar, regular sugar, egg and egg yolk and salt. Mix/beat it fiercely until it’s as fluffy as it can get.
6. Now, while you keep mixing, you gently pour in the strawberry butter.
7. Combine flour and baking powder, and use a sieve to sieve it into the sugar bowl. Mix. It will incorporate into a nice light brown dough.
8. Set the oven to 165 C.
9. Prepare a baking sheet on a tray (or two trays actually). I drag a stick of butter all over it. It keeps the paper flat and it gives a nice browned flavor to the cookies.
10. Using two spoons (one to scoop and one to release), scoop up your dough and place the little poops on the tray. You should be able to make about 20 cookies from this recipe. Make sure not to put the dough poops too close to each other, they’ll melt and flatten and you don’t want them to stick to each other although it’s not a catastrophe if they do. They’re easily separable.
11. Slice your three strawberries you set aside (remember?) and put two slices on each cookie. It looks nice and it tastes good. Now put the cookies into the oven.
12. After about 15 minutes, the cookies are ready. You’re looking for a slight browning along the edges but not too much. Don’t make them sit there for too long drying out! While you wait...
13. Melt the raw cacao and cocoa butter in a saucepan on low heat. You can use a “water bath” but you don’t need to, just be careful with the heat. Low I tell you!
14. Ok, cookies are ready. Get them out. And drizzle plenty of liquid cacao on them. This is really bitter, but we’ve compensated for this by making the cookies really sweet.
15. Now let the cookies rest in a cool place for 20 minutes so they firm up and the cacao solidifies.
16. Done. Eat them. Eat them now.