Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Cookies
Yup you read that title correctly. Chocolate-dipped-strawberry-cookies? HOW you ask? Easy! I have a little secret weapon. It's called cake mix!
As a custom cake artist I realized that cake mix gets a bad rap from these self proclaimed, self taught from scratch bakers. They swear cake mix is cheating. The reality is these large companies did their jobs and made out jobs much easier by combining ingredients commonly found in from scratch cake mixes.
By accident one Christmas, I was rushing as usual and forgot to add water to a cake mix and I noticed it looked a whole lot like my cookie dough. So I tasted it. Far warning (don't eat cookie dough with raw eggs in it). Anyway, so I threw in some chocolate chips to that batter and just did a little test run. To my surprise these “cookies” were absolutely delicious.
I've been experimenting with cake mixes as cookie dough ever since! We've created so many flavor profiles using the cake mix as a base. Even today, when I made these my son was having a fit because of the ten years I've been pastry chef, I'd never thought to do this particular process to a cookie!
But alas! Here we are here and OMG it's delicious!
Chocolate dipped strawberry cookies
Equipment
Mixer (electric or hand)
Cooling rack
Ingredients
1 package strawberry mix
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup melting chocolate wafers
Sprinkles of your choosing
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the cake mix, eggs, oil and extract until a smooth dough forms.
Using a cookie scoop, evenly portion out scoops of dough, without over crowding the pan.
The cookies will spread while in the oven.
Bake for 12-13 mins until the edges are just turning golden brown.
Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for 5 mins before transferring to cooling rack
While the cookies are cooling melt the chocolate.
Melt on high for 60 seconds and stir, adding back to the microwave in 30 second increments until fully melted and smooth.
Dip fully cooled cookies into the chocolate.
Lay on a fresh sheet of parchment and immediately add sprinkles.
Allow to set for 30 mins.
Notes
In this recipe, I used Ghirardelli melting chocolates because not only are they my favorite but these melting chocolates do not require the addition of oil to make them smooth. If you are unable to find melting chocolates (it will state this on the bag), then you can add a tablespoon of vegetable, olive, or melted coconut oil to smooth out your chocolate. Another cool substitution is using paramount crystals. Cakepop decorators are probably most familiar with these, as they help to thin out candy coating when dipping cake pops.
For a fun festive option add sprinkles to the batter or purchase a strawberry cake mix with sprinkles already added to the mix.
Using cake mix to make cookies helps cut down on time in the kitchen. Each package already has the leavening agents needed to bake cookies in the oven such as flour, baking powder, and salt. Using the flavored cake mixes gives us an opportunity to explore new cookie flavors without having to buy multiple flavored extracts.
