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From the Oven
From the Oven · No. VI · Every Season

Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies

Crisp at the edge, soft in the middle, and pink all the way through.

MakesAbout 24 cookies
Oven350°F
Time12 minutes, after the chill
Three raspberry white chocolate cookies on a tan stoneware plate
Pink flecks, all the way through

Fresh raspberries seem like the obvious choice here, and they are the wrong one — they carry too much water and turn the dough grey and slack. Freeze-dried raspberries do what fresh cannot: all of the flavor, none of the moisture, and those bright pink flecks that stay put through the oven.

Crush them lightly and no further. Ground to powder they tint the whole dough an even pink, which looks manufactured. Left in rough pieces, they scatter.

Ingredients

The wet

The dry

The folding in

Chop white chocolate from a bar rather than reaching for chips. Chips are formulated to hold their shape; a chopped bar melts into soft creamy pockets, which is the whole point here.

Method
  1. Beat the softened butter with both sugars until light and creamy, about 2–3 minutes.
  2. Beat in the egg, the yolk, and the vanilla until smooth.
  3. Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt just until combined. Do not overmix.
  4. Gently fold in most of the white chocolate and raspberries, holding back a small handful of each for the tops. Fold only until evenly distributed — the raspberries should stay in distinct flecks.
  5. Cover and refrigerate the dough 45–60 minutes.
  6. Heat the oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment. Scoop the dough into roughly 1½-tablespoon balls, two inches apart. Press a few of the reserved white-chocolate and raspberry pieces into the tops.
  7. Bake 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set and just beginning to turn golden while the centers still look soft. Cool on the sheet 5 minutes, then move to a rack.
Raspberry white chocolate cookies seen from above on a tan plate
Set out for the afternoon

After chilling, scoop the dough into balls and freeze them solid on a tray, then move them to a bag. Bake straight from frozen, adding a minute or two. Press on a few fresh pieces before they go in and no one will know they were ever in the freezer.

“The pink is the part people notice first. It only stays that way if you leave the raspberries alone.”