Delicate and crumbly chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies with a silky raspberry italian meringue buttercream and a dollop of raspberry jam in the center makes these chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert idea! 

 

My fellow home bakers, I must say, I’m pretty proud of this recipe. The buttery chocolate cookies and the silky smooth filling make this not only a flavor triumph but a textural one as well! Below you will find helpful information about the details of this recipe including the more technically challenging italian meringue buttercream and the secret ingredient I add to the chocolate sandwich cookies to tie the flavors together.

All About Italian Meringue Buttercream

Italian Meringue Buttercream is known as the intimidating kid on the block. I’ll admit, it intimidated me when I first started baking! In reality it takes a few extra steps and the results are TOTALLY worth it. 

Meringue-based buttercreams are less sweet than American Buttercream and are lighter in texture due to their base of whipped egg whites and sugar. Tackling buttercreams such as Italian Meringue and Swiss Meringue Buttercream are great investments for your future baking success. These buttercreams tend to be associated with a more sophisticated baked goods palette and admittedly, meringue is super satisfying to make.  

 

What you’ll need to make the Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream

 

• Good quality unsalted butter
• Egg whites
• Granulated sugar
• Water
• Vinegar
• Salt
• Vanilla Extract
• Freeze Dried Raspberries 

 

• Kitchen Thermometer
• Sifter
• Food Processor 

 

How to make Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream 

This buttercream requires some multitasking. You’ll need to make a sugar syrup while starting to whip the egg whites in a hand or stand mixer.

1. Make the sugar syrup by adding sugar and water to a heavy bottomed saucepan and placing it over medium heat. This process should take about 8-10 minutes or so. The sugar syrup is ready when it reaches 235℉-240℉ (112℃-115℃) confirmed on your kitchen thermometer.
2. While the sugar syrup is heating, begin to whip the egg whites in a hand or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until they are frothy like foam. Then, in a slow stream, pour in the remaining sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form.
3. When the sugar syrup is ready and the meringue has reached the soft peaks stage, continue to mix the meringue on medium/high speed and carefully pour in the hot sugar syrup in a slow stream.
4. Mix on medium/high until the meringue reaches stiff peaks stage and has cooled down to room temperature.
5. If using a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment and add the room temperature butter in tablespoon sized chunks. Beat until light and fluffy. If your meringue was too hot when the butter was added, it will likely look soupy. Not to worry! Either continue to beat until the buttercream comes back to room temperature, or place it in the refrigerator to cool down for 10 minute increments until the temperature regulates!
6. Lastly, add vanilla extract, salt and pulverized freeze dried raspberries and beat until incorporated. Et voilà! You have a gorgeous silky, perfectly raspberry flavored buttercream!

Tips for Perfect Chocolate raspberry Sandwich Cookies

These cookies are SO EASY to make. I decided to make them easy since the filling is a bit more technically complicated. Afterall, I’m all about making baking therapeutic so I couldn’t make this recipe too stressful!

The cookies come together in one bowl and require ZERO CHILLING TIME. Um, you’re welcome.

I bake them for exactly 8 minutes to make sure they remain soft in the end. That way, the fillings don’t squish out when you bite into them! 

Lastly, I used a secret ingredient in these chocolate sandwich cookies that I happened upon at the grocery store…

The Secret Ingredient

The secret ingredient in these cookies is Land O’Lakes Cocoa Classics Raspberry and Chocolate Cocoa Mix. We use ¼ cup in the cookies to add a bit of raspberry flavor into the cookies themselves. The cocoa mix works perfectly in this recipe and it is sold in individual packages that are exactly ¼ cup in size! 

A Note on Jam

You’re more than welcome to make your own raspberry jam for the center of the filling in these chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies. I used my favorite store bought jam and it worked perfectly! 

Overall I’m calling these chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert idea. It will definitely impress your loved ones and your tastebuds!

Can baking be therapeutic?

I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!

When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.

Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.

When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean. 

So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…

Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.

How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?   

How to make baking therapeutic…

1.  Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.

 

1. Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.

 

1. Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away. 

After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference! 

By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do! 

I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”

 

Additional suggestions:

*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours

**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience

And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!

Happy Baking!

 

Ingredients

For the Cookies

• ½ cup unsalted butter (slightly softened)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup Land O’Lakes Raspberry Chocolate Cocoa Mix
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup cornstarch
• 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour

For the Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream

• 1 large egg white (room temperature) 
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar 
• ⅛ tsp salt
• ½  cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
• ¼  tsp vanilla extract 
• ¼ tsp vinegar
• 2 Tbsp water 
• ⅛ cup pulverized freeze dried raspberries

 

For the Raspberry Jam

• Favorite store bought jam

 

Instructions

For the Cookies

• Preheat oven to 365℉ (185 ℃) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• To a medium bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add  ½ cup of slightly softened unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, ⅔ cup of granulated sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and ½ tsp of salt. Mix on medium speed until just combined. Do not overmix this batter!
• Add 1 large egg to the mixture and mix again until just combined. 
• Add ¼ cup of Land O’Lakes Raspberry Chocolate Cocoa Mix, ¼ cup of cocoa powder, ¼ cup cornstarch and 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour to the bowl and mix until the dough comes together.
• The dough should generally stick together and pull away from the sides of the bowl.
• Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper and press it slightly flat with your hands. Then place another parchment paper sheet on top of the dough.
• Roll the dough out using a rolling pin to about ⅓ of an inch thick. Cut the dough out using a circle cutter* that is 2” in diameter. You should be able to cut out 24 cookies after re-rolling out the dough. There will be VERY little dough leftover. 
• Place the cookies on the cookie sheet** and bake for exactly 8 minutes. The cookies will be baked fully but soft.
• Allow the cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

For the Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream

• While the cookies are baking, make the buttercream by placing ¼ cup of granulated sugar and 2 Tbsp of water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep a thermometer nearby.
• At the same time, preferably in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, though a hand mixer will work, place 1 large egg white at room temperature, ⅛ tsp of salt, and ¼ tsp of vinegar into the bowl and beat until many bubbles form and the mixture resembles foam.
• Once the egg whites have reached the foam stage, continue to mix and slowly pour in 2 Tbsp of granulated sugar. Whip until the mixture reaches the stiff peaks stage. 
• Check the temperature of the sugar syrup and remove it from the heat when it reaches 235℉-240℉ (112℃-115℃).
• Continue to whip the egg whites and sugar mixture that is now at the stiff peaks stage while slowly and carefully pouring the hot sugar syrup into the bowl. Beat until stiff peaks form and the overall temperature of the meringue has lowered to room temperature.
• Once the meringue reaches room temperature and the bowl is no longer hot to the touch, add ½ cup of unsalted butter at room temperature in 1 Tbsp chunks. 
• If using a stand mixer, switch to the paddle attachment and beat until the butter is fully incorporated and the buttercream comes together.*** Be aware, this buttercream looks curdled right before it comes together to fluffy perfection!
• Lastly, pulverize ½ cup of whole freeze dried raspberries into a fine powder. There will be larger chunks of raspberries in the end, save these to decorate the cookies with! 
• Sift the raspberry powder directly into the buttercream bowl, it should be about ⅛ cup of powder. Add ¼ tsp of vanilla extract directly to the bowl and mix one more time until everything comes together.

 

For the Assembly 

• Scoop the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a star tip, or a sandwich bag with a hole cut in the corner if you don’t have piping bags and tips.
• Make a ring of buttercream on the bottom side of each cookie, leaving enough space around the outer edge to sandwich another cookie on top without the filling pouring out. 
• Before sandwiching the second cookie on top, fill the middle of the ring of buttercream with your favorite raspberry jam.
• Place another cookie on top and press down slightly so that the buttercream comes to the edge.
• Optional: drizzle melted chocolate mixed with a splash of vegetable oil and sprinkle leftover freeze dried raspberry crumbles on top
• Eat and enjoy!

Notes:

*If you don’t have a circular cookie cutter, sometimes I use the lids of small mason jars or even round cups, they work well! Just try to find something that is 2” in diameter so that you yield 24 cookies

**You may place these cookies very close together since they will not spread very far. I place mine about ½ inch apart. You may need to bake in two batches or use two cookie trays.

***If you added the butter when the meringue was still too hot, it is likely that your buttercream turned soupy. Simply continue to mix until it comes to room temperature, it WILL come together! Or place it in the refrigerator for 10 minute increments beating again after each 10 minute period in the refrigerator, until it comes together.