Chocolate Strawberry Cookies

 

Brooke volunteered to make Sunday dessert and decided to do a trial run for an upcoming Mutual activity. The recipe her advisor sent called for freeze-dried strawberries, which were not available, so Brooke did a search and found a recipe for strawberry frosting which used fresh strawberries. She also decided that drizzling them with melted chocolate and garnishing them with a chocolate-covered strawberry slice would make them even more delicious. She was right. (Grandpa thought adding a few chocolate chips to the cookie batter would make those even better. Maybe someday we'll try his suggestion.)

Chocolate Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/8 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream together the butter and sugars; beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and stir into the batter. Drop by tablespoonfuls on a parchment-covered baking sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup fresh strawberries, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Combine the strawberries and water in a small saucepan and cook for several minutes until soft, then set aside to cool. Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the cooled berries with the lemon juice. Use to frost the cookies. If desired, drizzle with melted chocolate and garnish with a chocolate-dipped strawberry slice.