An amazing Valentine’s Day cookie, these chocolate covered strawberry blossom cookies are sweet and fudgy, and chocolatey with a natural strawberry flavor. Rolled in colored sugar, baked, and then topped with a Hershey Kiss, this is a fun spin on classic blossom cookies.
While walking through the grocery store, I came across these chocolate dipped strawberry Hershey’s Kisses and my brain started working. Taking the idea of a chocolate covered strawberry, I wondered if I could create a blossom cookie that emulated the same flavor. After some tweaking, I came up with these chocolate covered strawberry blossom cookies.
This blossom cookie, or Kiss cookie, takes the classic peanut butter blossom cookie and changes it to both a chocolate blossom and a strawberry blossom at the same time. I replace some of the flour with cocoa powder, and add ground, freeze-dried strawberries to the creamed butter and sugar. This creates the base for a chocolate covered strawberry cookie.
Anyone that knows me knows that I love coming up with creative blossom cookies. This cookie uses my red velvet hot cocoa blossom cookie as a base and adds natural strawberry flavor to it. Even 3-4 days after I made these blossom cookies, they are still incredibly soft and fudgy.
Obviously, if you can’t find these Hershey’s Kisses, feel free to use any other Kiss you would like. This will let you make these cookies any time of the year as well.
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🥘 Ingredients for Chocolate Strawberry Blossom Cookies
Most of the ingredients for chocolate covered strawberry blossom cookies are pantry staples you probably already have. The main ingredient you will probably need to get are the freeze-dried strawberries.
Flour – Use all-purpose flour for the base of the cookie structure.
Cocoa – I replace some of the flour with Dutch-process cocoa powder. This is what gives the cookies their chocolate flavor and soft, fudgy texture. While I prefer Dutch-process here, you can probably use regular unsweetened cocoa powder without a huge difference.
Leavening – Normally I use just baking soda in blossom cookies, but here I use a bit of both baking powder and soda since I’m using Dutch-process cocoa powder.
Butter – Here I use a little more butter than I usually do and omit the milk I normally add. The extra fat helps absorb and distribute the flavor from the freeze-dried strawberries.
Sugar – I use both white granulated and brown sugar in this blossom cookie recipe. I find the extra brown sugar over the white sugar keeps the cookies soft and enhances the chocolate flavor.
Strawberry – Fresh strawberries would add too much moisture and a muted flavor here. Use freeze-dried strawberries for a concentrated strawberry flavor that also adds no additional liquid. These can be found in grocery stores where they sell raisins and other dried fruits. Just be sure to use freeze-dried and not dried.
Egg – Use one egg here as both a binder for the ingredients and extra leavening.
Vanilla – A bit of vanilla extract helps to balance the flavors here. I used my homemade vanilla extract here. If you want a bigger punch of strawberry flavor, you can replace one teaspoon of vanilla extract with strawberry extract.
Rolling Sugar – Right before baking, you’ll roll cookie dough balls through sugar. Regular, white granulated sugar is fine here, or you can make them more holiday themed with sanding sugars. I used separate bowls of granulated sugar, pink sanding sugar, and red sanding sugar.
Kisses – The ingredient that makes blossom cookies what they are, top each cookie with a Hershey’s Kiss. I use their limited time seasonal chocolate dipped strawberry Kiss here, but you can replace that with regular or other Kiss options if you cannot find this version.
🔪 How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberry Blossom Cookies
Make the Dough
Start by grinding the freeze-dried strawberries. You can use a food processor, coffee grinder, or spice grinder for this. I used a spice grinder and ground them in two batches. Grind them into a fine powder and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to fully combine and set aside as well.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, add the butter and both sugars. Cream together at a medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and the reserved, ground strawberry. Blend on medium again until the strawberry is thoroughly incorporated, another 2-3 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl as well.
Now add the egg and mix on medium-low speed until combined, about a minute.
Finally, add the dry ingredients. Mix at a low speed until the flour is combined, then slowly increase speed until all the ingredients come together and you have a thick cookie dough.
The cookie dough will be soft and sticky at this point, so refrigerate it for about an hour before using.
Shape the Cookies
After the dough has chilled for an hour, remove it from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and set aside.
Add granulated sugar or colored sanding sugar to bowls and place near your cookie sheet.
Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop or measuring spoon to scoop out portions of the cookie dough and place on the baking sheet. You can fit about 20 cookies on a sheet at one time. If you’re baking in batches, portion 20 cookies and set the unused cookie dough back in the refrigerator until ready for the next batch.
Take the portioned cookies, one at a time, and gently roll in the palms of your hands until nice and round. Roll each of the balls in the bowls of sugar and place on the baking sheet. Keep them about 2 inches apart.
Once all cookies are shaped and rolled through sugar, place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 9-11 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet.
Finish the Cookies
While the cookies are baking, be sure to remove the wrappers from all the Kiss candies you will need and set them aside. Allow the cookie to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then gently press a Kiss into the center of each cookie.
Let the cookies continue to cool for another 10 minutes so they finish setting. Gently transfer them from the baking sheet to a cooling rack once they stiffen enough to be moved.
Finish shaping and rolling and baking the cookies until all the dough is used.
The Hershey’s Kisses will be very soft and melty for a while. Be sure to let them finish cooling and allow the Kisses to re-harden for at least an hour and then serve.
💭 Chocolate Strawberry Blossom Cookie Tips
- Room temperature ingredients. Creaming sugar with room temperature butter allows it to trap more air, leading to a lighter texture in the cookie and smoother distribution in the batter. Room temperature eggs are better for binding as cold eggs don’t emulsify with the rest of the ingredients as well.
- Dutch-process cocoa powder. This cocoa powder gives chocolate cookies a darker color and a fudgier flavor. Because it doesn’t have the same acidity as unsweetened cocoa powder, however, use baking powder in addition to baking soda for a proper rise in the oven.
- Freeze-dried strawberries. Fresh strawberries would add too much moisture and require a lot of tweaking to the recipe. Freeze-dried fruits have their liquid removed, leaving behind dehydrated fruit with a more concentrated flavor. This lets you add it to the cookie batter without adding more moisture and flavors the cookie with natural ingredients instead of extracts.
- Fat distributes flavor. Technically, you could toss the powdered, freeze-dried strawberries with the rest of the dry ingredients when making these cookies. However, when added to the butter and sugar mixture, the fat in the butter absorbs the flavor and color, better distribution and enhancing the strawberry flavor throughout the cookie dough.
- Rest the dough. While you could probably shape and bake the cookies right after mixing the batter, I suggest chilling it first. The dough is rather sticky once made and chilling it helps to dry it some. Rolling the dough in your hands to form smooth balls also warms the butter. Chilling helps to keep the butter from melting too much when baking, leading to flatter cookies that spread too much in the hot oven.
- Roll the cookies. Taking the extra step to gently roll the cookies into smooth balls helps the cookies bake more evenly and uniformly. This also makes it easier to roll through the sugar and get more even coverage.
- Kisses. Be sure to unwrap all your Kiss chocolates while the cookies are baking. You want to top the cookies shortly after coming out of the oven, so if you wait on unwrapping them, the cookies can cool too much before topping them. This can make the cookies crack apart when pressing the Kisses into them, and the Kisses won’t melt as much as you want them to.
🍽 Recommended Equipment
Nothing fancy is needed to make chocolate covered strawberry blossom cookies. Here’s just two items I always recommend using for various cookies.
Silicone Baking Mat – I’m a huge proponent of these Silpat silicone baking mats. They’re washable and reusable, so if you do a lot of baking, you’ll save a lot on parchment paper. They also work great and let the heat through evenly on the bottom.
Cookie Scoop – A good quality cookie scoop makes baking cookies a breeze. While you can eyeball how much you need, using a small cookie scoop here keeps things consistent in size. Other than trying to be a perfectionist, consistency in size also means that cookies will bake evenly.
❄️ How to Store Chocolate Strawberry Kiss Cookies
Once baked and cooled, these Valentine blossom cookies can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. You can also freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months in an airtight container.
If making ahead of time, you can chill the cookie dough for 2-3 days before baking. Alternatively, you can freeze unbaked cookie dough balls (before rolling in sugar) for up to 3 months as well. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or let stand at room temperature for at least 30-45 minutes before baking as normal. They may need a few extra minutes in the oven, depending on how frozen they were and how long they sit out before baking.
📋 Recipe
Chocolate Covered Strawberry Blossom Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 1-ounce bag freeze-dried strawberries, ground to powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- Sugar or colored sanding sugar for rolling
- 32 chocolate dipped strawberry Hershey’s Kisses, see note
Directions
Make the Dough:
- Start by grinding 1-ounce of freeze-dried strawberries. You can use a food processor, coffee grinder, or spice grinder for this. I used a spice grinder and ground them in two batches. Grind them into a fine powder and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, add 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. Whisk to fully combine and set aside as well.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer, add ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, ¾ cup brown sugar, and ¼ cup granulated sugar. Cream together at a medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and the reserved, ground strawberry. Blend on medium again until the strawberry is thoroughly incorporated, another 2-3 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl as well.
- Now add 1 large egg and mix on medium-low speed until combined, about a minute.
- Finally, add the dry ingredients. Mix at a low speed until the flour is combined, then slowly increase speed until all the ingredients come together and you have a thick cookie dough.
- The cookie dough will be soft and sticky at this point, so refrigerate it for about an hour before using.
Shape the Cookies:
- After the dough has chilled for an hour, remove it from the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and set aside.
- Add granulated sugar or colored sanding sugar to bowls and place near your cookie sheet.
- Use a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop or measuring spoon to scoop out portions of the cookie dough and place on the baking sheet. You can fit about 20 cookies on a sheet at one time. If you’re baking in batches, portion 20 cookies and set the unused cookie dough back in the refrigerator until ready for the next batch.
- Take the portioned cookies, one at a time, and gently roll in the palms of your hands until nice and round. Roll each of the balls in the bowls of sugar and place on the baking sheet. Keep them about 2 inches apart.
- Once all cookies are shaped and rolled through sugar, place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 9-11 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet.
Finish the Cookies:
- While the cookies are baking, be sure to remove the wrappers from all the Kiss candies you will need and set them aside. Allow the cookie to cool for 3-4 minutes on the baking sheet, then gently press a Kiss into the center of each cookie.
- Let the cookies continue to cool for another 10 minutes so they finish setting. Gently transfer them from the baking sheet to a cooling rack once they stiffen enough to be moved.
- Finish shaping and rolling and baking the cookies until all the dough is used.
- The Hershey’s Kisses will be very soft and melty for a while. Be sure to let them finish cooling and allow the Kisses to re-harden for at least an hour and then serve.
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