Strawberry Marshmallow Cookies

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I have a soft spot for pink desserts. I just can’t say no to them. And it’s kind of strange because I wouldn’t say I’m an overly pink-loving person. I don’t own much pink. But if you give me a sleeve of pink macarons, I will squeal with joy like a preteen at a K-pop concert. I’m not proud of this reaction, it’s just a fact. So when I put the finishing touches on these very pretty in pink Strawberry Marshmallow Cookies, I was pretty much beside myself. And when I tasted them, well, proud doesn’t even begin to cover it. They are so good and I just can’t wait to tell you all about them. So let’s get into it!

I’m not what you would call an avid baker. I’m actually not much of a dessert person. Bag of chips? Destroyed in seconds. A plate of cupcakes? I honestly could take them or leave them. But as a food stylist, I love desserts. They are my favorite things to design, execute and photograph. But recipe testing is a whole other ballgame. Testing cakes and pies and really anything involving yeast is the most trying process. When I make savory recipes, I usually get pretty close to amazing after a couple of rounds. But with baking, well, the fails are far more frequent. And when your sweet tooth is less than active that’s a whole lot of leftover cake to wade through.

That’s why you see so few dessert recipes on this blog. I only see the recipes I’m truly excited about through. And I cannot tell you how excited I am about these Strawberry Marshmallow Cookies. These are absolute heaven and so worth the numerous pitfalls. They look impressive, and some of you seemed a little intimidated by them when I introduced them on Instagram. But trust me, if you want to make these, you totally can. I honestly found these cookies easier to put together than most layer cakes. They look complicated but they’re actually fairly simple.

Now, the one thing that can make these cookies a little complicated is timing. You do have to let things cool, cure, and set. So these are not like a batch of chocolate chip cookies, there is nothing instantaneous about these cuties. But there’s also nothing hard or difficult about them either. You just have to let things chill or cool or dry. And all of that is inactive. So time management is really the only essential skill you need.

So let’s start from the bottom and work our way up. The base of these Strawberry Marshmallow Cookies is a simple sugar cookie accented with bits of freeze-dried strawberries. Don’t use dried strawberries, they are completely different. You need the crumbly freeze-dried kind, not a raisin situation. This is slightly less important when it comes to the cookies. You can after all add dried fruit to cookies without interrupting their structural integrity. But when it comes to the final white chocolate coating, you will need freeze-dried strawberries. So why not use them in the cookies as well? And if you hate raisins in your desserts, I’m willing to wager you won’t like dried strawberries in your dessert either. I get it, it’s a texture thing. So go with freeze-dried strawberries, please and thank you.

The sugar cookie base comes together as any traditional roll-and-cut cookie dough would, which means we’ve reached our first chilling interlude. Now, I like to roll my dough out to cut-ready thinness prior to chilling and I suggest you do the same. This might mean you have to rearrange your fridge to accommodate the cookie dough sheets, it did for me. That’s why I recommend splitting your dough in half and rolling out the halves. It will take up less fridge real estate and you can stack the halves on top of each other. You will have dough scraps leftover after cutting out your cookies. I chose to roll my scraps into logs and freeze them for future slice and bake cookies. You never know when a cookie emergency will hit.

Next, we have the innards of the cookie and this is where I cheated a bit. I originally thought of making a strawberry pate de fruit for the center. But I got lazy and went with a jar of strawberry jelly. If you want to make everything from scratch, use the recipe for the pate de fruit in my Raspberry Ricotta Mousse Cakes. Replace the raspberries with strawberries and proceed as written.

Then, we have the marshmallow and if you’ve ever made meringue you can make marshmallow. Basically, you have egg whites and sugar and you cook them on a double broiler, so you don’t scramble the whites. When the mixture reaches 150°F, take the bowl off of the heat and add some softened gelatin sheets. You can use powdered gelatin if you prefer and agar powder if you’re vegetarian. From there you just whip the heck out of it until soft peaks form. Once that happens, pop it into a piping bag and pipe it onto the cookies. And now you’ve reached setting interlude number two. You need to leave the marshmallow to set for 1 hour at room temperature before proceeding.

Okay, final step. Melt some white chocolate and coconut oil over a double boiler. Yes, this recipe is very double boiler happy. Once the chocolate and oil are melted, add some blitzed freeze-dried strawberries and whisk to combine. Pour the finished mixture into a small glass through a fine-mesh strainer to remove any lumps and bumps. Dip your cookies into the chocolate, sprinkle them with sprinkles and let them set. Yes, chilling interlude number 3. And that’s it! That wasn’t so hard, was it?

So that’s everything you need to know about these Strawberry Marshmallow Cookies. They’re pretty in pink, they taste kind of like strawberry Pocky, and they have that perfect springy texture that every marshmallow should. Trust me, these wee cuties are well worth the patience they require.

Enjoy!