When I search for Valentine’s Day treat recipes on the internet, all I see are recipes saturated with food dyes. Whether it uses artificial food dyes or decorations with dyes, my family prefers to avoid these recipes with dyes. Like, I don’t want to bake fluorescent red cookies! Can you also relate? Does your family prefer no artificial dyes? If that’s you, then don’t worry! This strawberry Valentine’s Day chocolate chip cookies recipe is dye-free! The cute color comes from strawberries! It’s cute, delicious, and dye-free. My family demolished these cookies. Let me tell you how to make them so your family can enjoy them too! Let’s make it, girlies!
Why I Love This Recipe
I love this recipe because it’s so cute and fun for Valentine’s Day without artificial fluorescent colors. I think they are officially a family favorite in my house. They are so good that they were gone in a day. Yeah, my family gobbled them up. I’m pretty sure there were like five left by the time I finished cleaning up. I’ll have to make another batch soon!
How To Make These Cookies
Here is how to make these cookies! I’ll show the recipe card later, and that’s when you can make this recipe. Here, I’ll just tell you the details you need to know before you bake.
1. Preparing to Bake
The first step is to preheat your oven to 375. Make sure to check the oven before you preheat it because there could be something in there. Prepare two cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper. You’ll also need to set out your butter (1/2 cup or one stick) in this step so it can reach room temperature. If you didn’t do this, put it in the microwave for about eight seconds. That’s how long it took me to get it to room temp, but start with five because it could take less time. You don’t want the butter to be softened!
2. Making the Cookie Dough (part one)
Next, you gotta make the dough (the fun part in my opinion). Mix the butter, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup brown sugar. I use turbinado sugar in all of my recipes, which is grainier and darker than regular white sugar. That’s why the cookies may appear dark in the picture. If you don’t use turbinado sugar, the cookies will be lighter. The cooking time and everything will still be the same :).
Next, add one egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Espresso powder (or just any coffee powder) gives chocolate chip cookies and other chocolate desserts an amazing taste! It gives the chocolate depth. You could leave it out, but I would highly recommend trying it. It’s so good! Now for the salt, if you’re using salted butter like me, add 1/2 teaspoon like the recipe says. However, if you use unsalted butter, add 3/4 teaspoon salt instead of 1/2 teaspoon!
3. Making the Cookie Dough (part two)
Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1 cup flour. Mix until combined. Add 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, and 2 cups of freeze-dried strawberries. You can chop up a chocolate bar, but I used chips. Dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate gives a nice contrast to the sweet white chocolate. I did that last Valentine’s Day with this recipe, and it was so good!
Also, when you fold in the strawberries, they will break, and that’s good. We don’t want whole strawberries in our cookies! Just make sure not to break them so much that they become powder. You want bits of strawberry mixed into the dough.
4. Scooping and Baking
Next, you wanna scoop large dollops of cookie dough onto the prepared cookie sheet. I used a cookie scooper. I’d estimate that each cookie dollop was a bit less than 1/4 cup. I put five dollops on each cookie sheet because these cookies do spread out! However, even though they do spread, make sure to press down each dollop too, so that they cook evenly. It’s important.
For baking, you want to bake them for 10-12 minutes, but the time may vary from oven to oven. Also, if you made your cookies massive, you may have to bake them for 15 minutes. I made a jumbo cookie with the last dollop of dough I had. It had to be baked for a longer time. You’ll know the cookie is done when the edges are browned and crispy. The middle can still be shiny. I actually recently learned that cookies continue to bake as they cool. The final thing you have to do to make these cookies is wait for them to cool. But don’t wait too long because warm cookies are amazing. Just wait until they won’t burn your mouth.
And there you have it! That’s how to make dye-free strawberry Valentine’s Day chocolate chip cookies! Let’s move on to some FAQs.
FAQs:
Can I use browned butter? No. I specifically chose this recipe not to have browned butter because browned butter brings too much moisture into cookie dough. If the dough is too moist, the strawberries will get soggy and gummy. Boo! Use this recipe that has normal butter.
Can I add any more toppings? This recipe has a ton of toppings, so you should add fewer chocolate chips if you want to add any more toppings.
Do fresh strawberries work? I’ve not tried it, and you shouldn’t either. Strawberries add a lot of water to the cookie dough, so freeze-dried is best. They don’t have any water.
Related Recipes:
- Dye-Free Chex Mix– the perfect thing to bring to a party
- My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe– here’s a browned butter cookie recipe!
- Valentine’s Day Breakfast Trail Mix– the best breakfast for Valentine’s Day
Time To Bake!
That’s all you need to know about this recipe! It’s so amazing because it’s dye-free, delicious, cute, and the perfect Valentine’s Day chocolate chip cookie. Are you ready to make it? It’s time to bake!
Dye-Free Strawberry Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter room tempature
- 1/2 cup sugar I used turbinado sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate
- 1/2 cup white chocolate
- 2 cups freeze-dried strawberries
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Let the butter sit until room temperature or heat it in the microwave until barely softened (mine took about 8 seconds).1/2 cup butter
- Mix the room temperature butter, sugar, and brown sugar until fully combined. Add the egg, vanilla, espresso powder, and salt. Stir this. Add the baking soda and flour. Mix until a dough forms. Fold in the milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, and freeze-dried strawberries. Make sure the strawberries break a bit as you mix, leaving no whole strawberries. But also remember not to crush them into a powder.1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk chocolate, 1/2 cup white chocolate, 2 cups freeze-dried strawberries
- Scoop large dollops of cookie dough onto the cookie sheets. I used a cookie scooper, and I think that each dollop was a bit less than 1/4 cup. Make sure to flatten them a bit. I put five cookies on each cookie tray because they will spread out. Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The sides should be browned, and the center may be a bit shiny. Let them cool for a bit so you don't burn your mouth, but cookies are best while still warm. Enjoy! Happy Valentine's Day!
Thank you so much for making my dye-free strawberry chocolate chip cookies for Valentine’s Day! If you tried this recipe, comment on how it went. Tell me if you added anything or how your family liked it. That’s all. Bye, girlies!
About Danya Grace
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