Announcing BGSK Cookie Giveaway winner #2!
Jessica Chao white chocolate raspberry, or madeleines. miam miam.
Jess and I (Cara) spent a summer together at Middlebury College learning French-that is, swearing to ourselves and our teachers we wouldn’t speak a word of English. More than the sudden loss of our native tongue, we were shocked to eat the cuisine of Middlebury’s dining halls, particularly once we discovered Atwater, the brand new, very clean, and eco-friendly dining spot that was meant for the Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, and German language schools, and which we French kids therefore had to sneak into. There, the fresh, local ingredients combined with the availability of scoop-your-own ice cream at any time of day made us rather unenthusiastic about returning to the dull offerings of our own college’s dining hall later that year. One of Atwater’s specialties, I remember, was the raspberry white chocolate scone, a breakfast food so dessert-like even I could only eat about a quarter of one.
Needless to say, with things like chocolate in the morning, nearby pristine lakes (Dunmore…), and our senses of humor reduced (along with our language fluency) to the five-year-old level, it was the best summer of our lives.
When Jess suggested White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies as her favorite on our Facebook Wall, I thought of these scones and knew just what she meant. A plain-ish background punctuated with bits of tangy raspberry (but not jam) and lots and lots of white chips, making the cookies as a whole land just this side of overly sweet. Jess is a marathon runner so I figured she could handle it.
I brainstormed how to get the raspberries to the right texture, then creamed butter and sugar and added a few too many chips. Finally, yesterday afternoon, I packed them up and shipped them up to Vermont, where Jess is now lucky enough to be a student at med school, and where she gets to relive much of that Middlebury summer every single day. Now, she’ll have the white chocolate and raspberry necessary to fully revert.
From our kitchen, sharing the cookie love with yours,
Phoebe and Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS
White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies
Makes 2 dozen
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 light brown sugar
1 stick butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 265°F. Spread the raspberries on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 35 minutes, then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar and bake for another twenty. They should appear slightly dried out. Set aside.
Increase the oven temperature to 350°F.
Cream the butter and sugars in a bowl with an electric mixer for a minute or two, until well combined and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Separately, whisk together the flour, soda, and salt, then add to the wet ingredients and beat just until the dough comes together. Add the white chocolate chips and stir to distribute them evenly. With the dough spread out as much as possible, sprinkle the cooled raspberries on the surface. Use two butter knifes to cut them into the dough; doing this will spread the berries around without mushing them too much. The dough will still appear somewhat tie-dyed.
Roll the dough into heaping-tablespoon-sized balls, moistening hands on occasion to keep from sticking. Arrange a few inches apart on a baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes until the cookies are set but barely browned. Remove to a rack to cool completely.
