Introducing the second recipe in my dessert cookie series – Eton Mess Cookies! The cookie dough is flavoured with fresh strawberries, raspberries, white chocolate chips and crunchy meringue pieces. Expect all the flavours found in an Eton Mess dessert but wrapped into a delicious soft-baked cookie!
If lemon is more your thing, be sure to check out the first recipe in the series: Lemon Meringue Cookies.
About these Eton Mess Cookies
- FLAVOUR: these cookies combine fresh strawberries, tart raspberries, creamy white chocolate chips and sweet meringue pieces.
- TEXTURE: the cookies have crisp edges and a super gooey middle, with a little crunch from the meringue pieces.
- EASE: this is an easy, one-bowl recipe that’s suitable for all baking levels.
- PERFECT FOR: summer baking, BBQ treats and picnics.
Let’s talk ingredients
The cookie dough is made using the usual ingredients: melted butter, caster sugar, light brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and salt. Then we add the Eton mess additions:
- Fresh strawberries and raspberries – folded in at the last minute and only until just mixed through. Be careful not to overwork the dough once the berries are added, otherwise they will make the texture too wet and mushy.
- Meringue nests – are crushed up and folded into the cookie dough. Save time and use shop-bought nests, no one will know!
- White chocolate chips – no cookie is complete without chocolate chips in my opinion. So even though you wouldn’t typically find chocolate chips in an Eton mess dessert, I think they absolutely enhance the flavour and texture of these cookies.
Fresh vs. freeze-dried berries
When developing this recipe I was really torn between using fresh berries or freeze-dried berries. In the end, I decided to use fresh berries because they’re a) they’re easier to pick up from the shops and b) I just love the ‘fresh’ flavour they add to the cookies.
But… you can use either! Just be mindful that the resulting texture and flavour will be slightly different. Here’s how:
Fresh berries naturally contain water which adds extra moisture to the cookies. So to make sure the dough isn’t too ‘wet’, more flour is added than usual which balances the moisture. Personally, I also love the flavour that fresh berries add to the cookies, it’s hard to explain but they just taste more ‘freshly baked’ in comparison to using freeze-dried.
Freeze-dried berries contain no moisture which is why they’re also a popular choice for baking. I find the flavour very intense, which makes freeze-dried berries ideal for making a single-flavour recipe like raspberry buttercream or strawberry muffins. However, for these Eton mess cookies, we’re aiming to strike the perfect flavour balance between the berries, meringue and chocolate chips. So if you plan to use freeze-dried berries, reduce the amount to 70-80g in total to not overpower the flavour, reduce the flour to 270g and reduce the baking time to 12 minutes.
Two tips for picture-perfect Eton Mess cookies
As soon as the cookies are out of the oven and still warm, give these two tips a go to make your cookies look just as good as they taste:
- Decorate the tops – save a handful of white chocolate chips and meringue pieces, then press them into the top of the cookie for a pretty finish.
- Shape the cookies – spin a round cutter around the cookies to shape them into perfect circles.
Eton Mess Cookies
Ingredients
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 100 g white caster sugar
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 medium egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 300 g self-raising flour
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 100 g white chocolate chips
- 60 g fresh strawberries chopped into small chunks
- 60 g fresh raspberries
- 40 g meringue nests
Instructions
Start by making the cookie dough
- Place the butter in a large bowl and microwave for 60 seconds or until melted.
- Add both sugars and mix to combine.
- Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract, then mix to combine.
- Add the flour and salt, then fold together to form a cookie dough.
- Fold in the white chocolate chips and crushed meringue pieces until well mixed through.
- Add the fresh strawberries and raspberries, then gently fold a couple of times until just mixed through. Be careful not to over mix otherwise the dough will become too wet and mushy.
- Scoop up a heaped tablespoon of cookie dough and roll it into a ball. Repeat until all the cookie dough has been used up, making roughly 15 in total.
- Place the cookie dough balls in a baking tin, cover with clingfilm and freeze for 3 hours. In case you want to prep ahead or keep stored for another day, the rolled dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Bake the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 200°C conventional. Line two large flat baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Place 5-6 cookie dough balls on a baking tray, leaving space between each so they have room to spread out.
- Bake for 14 minutes until golden and firm around the edges.
- Leave to cool on the baking tray for 20 minutes, then tuck in and enjoy!
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
I really hope you enjoyed it and I’d also love to hear what you think! Feel free to leave a comment or star rating below, and you can also DM me on Instagram or tag @jessie.bakes.cakes so I can see your delicious cookies.
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[…] are your thing, be sure to check out the other recipes in my “Dessert Cookie Series”: Eton Mess Cookies and Lemon Meringue […]