Strange but Chewy STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE Cookies

So I made some Strawberry Shortcake Cookies the other day (a slight alteration on another recipe called Chewy Strawberry Sugar Cookies) because it was strawberry season and I had a whole lot of strawberries to use up AND I wanted strawberry shortcake - in cookie form. Would you believe there's no DECENT if any, strawberry shortcake COOKIE recipes out there?? Sure there's raspberry.... cheesecake, but no strawberry... SHORTCAKE.

Anyways, I added white chocolate chips to my version and practically quadrupled the amount of strawberry puree called for and you probably could have still added more. The original recipe called for about 3 tbsp - I used about a cup! I think if I were to use only 3 tbsp, I would barely taste any strawberry flavour, if at all. The original recipe also called for the cookie dough to be rolled in some red and white sugar before baking them - but I didn't bother with that. (Remember, it's a strawberry SUGAR cookie recipe. I'm trying to make a strawberry SHORTCAKE cookie recipe.)

In the end, the cookies tasted weird at first, and looked even weirder. Something that would look delicious to zombies. They were a flesh-looking colour and the slightly burnt white chocolate chips looked like some bad-looking teeth sticking out of them.

Now when I say weird, I meant the strawberries tasted weird inside the cookies. I'm not sure if it is because I'm not used to FRESH strawberries in a cookie dough - (I pureed them on the stove with a bit of sugar) as opposed to those dried strawberry bits you find in dry cookie or muffin mix.

The white chocolate chips however, helped a lot with the 'shortcake' flavour I was trying to achieve.

By the way, I'm by no means trying to promote the 'Chipits' brand here. I use ANY white chocolate chips I can get my hands on. I was merely showing that it was 'pure' white chocolate chips because apparently there's white chocolate chips and then there's PURE white chocolates chips. Whatevah. If your family ain't fussy like mine - use whatever you want. If the queen is coming over - switch to the good stuff. On second thought, save the good stuff for the family - give the queen the other stuff.

The final product:

Eventually, I placed all the cookies in a Ziploc bag and stored them in the fridge so that when I need some shugah, I would just pull one out. After all, I need my sugar-fix every day to get me going you know.

The other day I pulled one out and guess what? They weren't that bad. It seems they got better with age. It took a bit of getting used to at first - the dense and chewy texture and strange strawberry tasting flavour but when your mouth is dry and craving something sweet, they were actually not bad at all. In fact, they were pretty delicious. I have to repeat again, I think those white chocolate chips really helped a lot! It gave it that extra ooomph! and made it taste more like a strawberry shortcake.

Anyways, the original recipe is below (with my altered version). Maybe you can do something with it to make it taste more like a strawberry shortcake cookie, (if you do, please let me know) - or maybe you'll end up with something entirely different all together! ;)

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups WHITE SUGAR*
• 1 cup BUTTER, softened
• 1 EGG
• 3 tbsp STRAWBERRY PUREE**
• 2-3/4 cup All-purpose FLOUR***
• 1 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER
• 1/2 tsp SALT
• 1/2 cup WHITE SUGAR****
• 1 tsp RED COLOURED SUGAR****

*I used 1-1/4 since there was already 2 tbsps of sugar in the puree and I was using white chocolate chips. Don't want to overkill on the sweetness.
** I keep reading in the reviews 3 tbsp. weren't enough... 6 tbsp. weren't enough... so I added a cup!
*** I used 3 cups to compensate for the extra puree I added. Perhaps I should have added more so it would have been easier to flatten the cookies as suggested in the original recipe (my dough was somewhat sticky) - but that would have also meant the cookies would have turned out more cakey - and less doughy/dense?
**** I omitted all this sugar all together.


Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Beat 1-1/2 cups white sugar and butter together until creamy - about 3 mins. Beat egg into butter mixture then add the strawberry puree.
3. Stir flour, vanilla extract, baking powder and salt into strawberry mixture with a spoon until the flour is totally incorporated into the dough.
4. Stir 1/2 cup white and red sugar in shallow bowl. Roll walnut-size dough into sugar mixture, and place each ball about 1-1/2" apart onto the baking sheet. Lightly press each dough ball down to flatten.
5. Bake cookies till lightly browned. 10-15 mins. Cool

(Original Recipe: Chewy Strawberry Sugar Cookies)