Make fresh-tasting strawberry cookies even better by adding a swirl of creamy chocolate ganache frosting and a sprinkling of freeze-dried strawberries. These pretty little chocolate strawberry cookie cups will make a delicious summertime dessert, a fun Valentine's Day treat, or even a sweet addition to a Christmas cookie platter.
Last week when I shared a recipe for strawberry cookies made using freeze-dried strawberries, I dipped a few in chocolate. They were so good that just knew I needed to make more chocolate-covered strawberry cookie recipes.
The combination of chocolate and strawberries is always a winner and our cookie cup recipes have been so popular that I decided to make strawberry cookie cups topped with chocolate frosting.
My favorite frosting is a simple 2-ingredient chocolate ganache. It's easy to make using semi-sweet chocolate and heavy whipping cream and it tastes amazing.
There are several ways to make chocolate ganache but because we are all about easy cookie recipes here, I am sharing the easiest method.
Easy chocolate ganache:
- Finely chop bars or blocks of chocolate and pour them into a small saucepan.
- You can use chips just be sure to use chocolate that you really love. The flavor of the chocolate will shine through so don't skimp and use cheap chocolate.
- Pour heavy whipping cream over the chocolate.
- Set the pan on LOW heat.
- Stir often until about 75% of the chocolate has melted. This is very important. You do not want to overheat the chocolate or your ganache can become greasy or grainy.
- Your chocolate may melt in as little as 2 minutes and as many as 4-5 minutes depending on your stove and pan.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for about 3 minutes, then stir the chocolate until it's melted and smooth.
- If needed, you can heat it on low heat for a few more seconds.
Once the ganache is made, it will be thin. As it cools, it will thicken up enough that you can pipe it onto your cookie cups. It's best to allow this to happen slowly at room temperature. So, make the ganache first then get your cookie cups baked.
To make the strawberry cookie cups you'll need seedless freeze-dried strawberry powder.
You can buy seedless freeze-dried strawberry powder or you can make your own using freeze-dried strawberry slices.
making freeze-dried strawberry powder
You'll want to crush the strawberry slices into a fine powder. I like using a food processor to crush my berries but you can also smash them using a rolling pin or meat mallet.
The crushed strawberries will have lots of seeds in them. I'm not a fan of the seeds in my cookies so I removed them.
To remove the strawberry seeds, pour the crushed freeze-dried strawberries into a fine mesh sieve. Scrape the strawberry pieces back and forth allowing the fine powder to fall into a bowl. Discard the seeds.
strawberry cookie cups
The recipe, which is below, is easy. You cream the butter, sugar, and strawberry powder, then add the egg and vanilla and stir in the dry ingredients.
To make pretty pink cookie cups you will want to bake them in mini paper cupcake wrappers. The paper will help to keep the edges of your cookie cups from turning golden brown which isn't quite as pretty.
If you have aluminum or silicone pans, use those, or reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees if you use non-stick pans.
piping on chocolate ganache frosting
Your chocolate ganache will take a few hours to thicken at room temperature. You want it to thicken to frosting consistency.
If you make the ganache first, then make and bake the cookies, and allow them to cool, the ganache should be ready to pipe.
If you allow it to cool for too long it will get too firm to pipe through a pastry tip. If this happens you can heat it on the stove or in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it slightly.
Spoon the chocolate ganache frosting into a pastry bag fitted with a large open star tip and pipe a swirl on top of each strawberry cookie cup.
To add extra strawberry flavor and a pop of color to your cookie cups, sprinkle on some crushed freeze-dried strawberries.
chocolate raspberry cookie cups
You can use any freeze-dried fruit to make these cookies including cherries, raspberries, peaches, blueberries, bananas, and apples.
I made some chocolate raspberry cookie cups and they were delicious!
I swapped out freeze-dried raspberries for the freeze-dried strawberries listed in the recipe below. The Fuschia-colored cookies are packed with fresh raspberry flavor and they taste great paired with chocolate too.
chocolate strawberry cookie cups recipe
chocolate strawberry cookie cups
Pretty, little, pink strawberry cookie cups are flavored using freeze-dried strawberries and are topped with a swirl of creamy chocolate ganache and a sprinkling of freeze-dried strawberries.
Ingredients
- CHOCOLATE GANACHE FROSTING
- 12 ounces (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate bars, finely chopped (or 2 cups of chocolate chips)
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream (180 grams)
- STRAWBERRY COOKIE CUPS
- 2 ounces freeze-dried strawberry slices (or 1.5 ounces seedless freeze-dried strawberry powder)
- ½ cup unsalted butter (113 grams), softened
- ⅔ cup sugar (150 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 192 grams all-purpose flour (1 ½ cups)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- optional, 5 drops red food coloring
- FREEZE-DRIED STRAWBERRY GARNISH
- 3-4 freeze-dried strawberry slices
Instructions
- Make your chocolate ganache so it can thicken enough to pipe onto your cookies.
- Combine the chopped chocolate (or chips) and the heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan.
- Set the pan over LOW heat.
- Allow the chocolate to melt, stirring it often, until about 75% of the chocolate has melted. This will take 2-4 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it rest for about three minutes, then stir the chocolate until melted and smooth.
- If needed, you can reheat the chocolate over low heat for a few seconds until it all melts.
- Do not overheat the chocolate or your chocolate ganache will become greasy or grainy.
- Pour the ganache into a glass bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.
- Then, set it aside to cool and thicken while you make the strawberry cookie cups.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 C).
- Line mini muffin cups with about 32 paper cups.
- If using freeze-dried strawberry slices, crush them into very small pieces using a food processor or smash them into a fine powder using a meat mallet or rolling pin.
- Press the freeze-dried strawberry powder through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and any large pieces.
- Discard the seeds.
- You should end up with about 1 ½ ounces of freeze-dried strawberry powder.
- Set aside until needed.
- Beat the butter and sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add the freeze-dried strawberry powder and beat to combine.
- Stir in the egg and vanilla.
- Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder then mix it into the dough just until combined.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough into a mini muffin cup then flatten into an even layer and prick with a fork three times.
- Repeat until all the dough is used.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes just until the cookies look dry on top and set around the edges. Do not allow the cookies to get too brown.
- Let the cookies cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then set them on a cooling rack to cool completely for another 15-30 minutes.
- Once cooled, peel off the paper wrappers.
- When the chocolate ganache has thickened to frosting consistency, spoon it into a pastry bag fitted with a large (1M) open star pastry tip.
- Pipe a swirl of chocolate ganache onto each strawberry cookie cup.
- Crush a few freeze-dried strawberry slices and sprinkle the crumbs over the chocolate strawberry cookie cups.
Notes
If you use seedless freeze-dried strawberry power, just measure out 1 ½ ounces which is about ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons.
It's always best to weigh flour to get the most accurate measurement. If you don't have a scale, spoon the flour into your measuring cup, then scrape across the top of the cup using a straight edge. We use 128 grams of flour for every cup.
The dough will look vibrantly red once you add the strawberry powder but the color will dull once the cookies are baked. If you really want your strawberry cookie cups to look bright pink, add a few drops of red food coloring when you add the egg and vanilla.
Bake your cookie cups in paper wrappers if you want nice, pink cookies. If you skip this step, then the edges of the cookies will turn golden brown and your cookies won't look as pretty.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
32Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 137Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 26mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 1gSugar: 10gProtein: 1g
HowToMakeEasyCookies.com offers nutritional information for recipes contained on this site as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you use to create this recipe.
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