Luscious double chocolate spritz cookies made with bits of raspberry and a decadent raspberry buttercream filling will have you falling in love.
I did a lot of baking this year, and came up with many new recipes that I just loved, but this was the one I looked forward to the most. I had the idea to make a chocolate raspberry spritz for Valentine’s Day, ironically, shortly after the holiday last year, so I’ve waited all this time to finally do this blog!
The recipe did not disappoint. I am a self-professed chocoholic and have a particular soft spot for chocolate and raspberry. And buttercream. So yeah, I guess this was bound to be confectionery heaven for me.
The recipe is straightforward and simple, with just two ingredients that take a tad of extra time/effort. Both the cookie and the cream filling have pulverized freeze-dried raspberries in them (oh the bursts of flavor!), and the cookie has grated semi-sweet chocolate. Luckily, both steps are quick and easy. I was able to get the freeze-dried raspberries at my local Whole Foods store. If you can’t find them locally just plan ahead a little and order them online from somewhere like Amazon.
The result is just pure decadence!
I used all of our Valentine’s Day disks plus the flower bouquet disk from the Wedding set.
Here they are stuffed but not decorated yet, with a few of the disks.
*NOTE: As of our 2019 Re-Opening our new disks are made of a solid white material, but the designs are exactly the same, and press identically.
Where can you find our disks?
Our website has all of our 200+ disk shapes, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, baking accessories plus more about our Women/Family Owned company! impressbakeware.com
All products are on our Etsy shop.
Our cookie press and disks and embossed rolling pins are also available on Amazon.
Let’s get started!
Double Chocolate Raspberry Spritz with Raspberry Buttercream Filling
Cookie ingredients
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened (not melted)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup honey
1 & ½ Tablespoons vanilla extract
1 egg
1/3 cup pulverized freeze-dried raspberries
3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup grated semi-sweet baking chocolate
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Gather your ingredients and disks.
Preheat oven to 400°F.
(*NOTE: As of our 2019 Re-Opening our new disks are made of a solid white material, but the designs are exactly the same, and press identically.)
Before you begin making the dough, grate the semi-sweet chocolate (I used a manual grater on the small holes) and measure out what you need. Pulverize the raspberries and measure them out, too. I used a magic Bullet but a blender of food processor will do. You can also crush them in the bag. I tried it with a plate, rolling the plate bottom side to side over the bag until the raspberries were pretty crushed. You will need 1/3 cup for the cookies and 2 Tablespoons for the filling. Try to pull the bigger pieces out and use them for the filling only. You don’t want them in the dough to clog the disks.
The ingredients for these cookies are just lovely!
The first step in spritz is always creaming the butter. I am a broken record on this blog about butter, but it’s necessary! Also, I recommend Land-O-Lakes butter as it is nationally available and I know it always creams correctly. I have had some generic butters work just fine but some just don’t cream properly, making the dough too hard to press. We don’t want that. 🙂
So put that electric mixer on the whip setting and pretend you’re making frosting. Your butter should become creamy and light. Then you’re ready to add the sugar, and then the honey. After those add the egg and vanilla, re-creaming and whipping after each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Add this mixture to the butter base until a smooth chocolate dough forms.
Now gently fold in the raspberries and grated chocolate. Note how the dough gets slightly pinkish!
Let this dough sit for five to ten minutes before using. The cocoa is still absorbing liquid, and the dough will become drier, less sticky, easier to handle, and more pressable as you go. Keep an eye on it if it’s very warm in your kitchen. Warm dough becomes hard and is never very pressable.
Always remember that you can tweak overly stiff dough by adding more vanilla a teaspoon at a time (or by the tablespoon if it’s particularly stiff), or tweak overly soft or sticky dough by adding flour a tablespoon at a time. Watch some of my videos to see what a correct spritz dough texture looks like.
Load your press with dough using the back of a spoon to remove any air pockets as you go. Choose your first disk and start pressing. Remember that often it takes a few mis-shaped cookies before correct pressure builds in the barrel. Once you have a good shape, try to keep a consistent rhythm.
If you’re having trouble, try clicking into the air a few times and wiping away the dough to start over. It resets the pressure. Remember also with “once click per cookie” presses it’s completely fine to use more or less than a click. Think of the press as just a dough-pumping mechanism. Clicking is how you get the dough to come out. Feel the cookies stick to the sheet and you’ll get the hang of it. Always use un-greased sheets and never use non-stick. Even the most experienced pressers throw goofed up cookies back in the bowl all the time. Don’t be discouraged!
This dough shouldn’t give you many problems. I found it very easy to press with these disks.
As you are pressing the double hearts and heart with arrow shapes, if you remember to, flip the disk over halfway through pressing those shapes so you will have mirror-image shapes to sandwich. It simply makes them fit a bit better, but it’s no big deal with these if you forget.
Bake for 7 to 10 minutes, checking the first batch early and often as all ovens are different and spritz brown very quickly once they start. Let them sit on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack. This helps prevent breakage.
While the cookies are cooling make the filling.
1/2 cups (1 stick) butter, softened (not melted)
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons pulverized freeze-dried raspberries
*IMPORTANT NOTE: depending on how thick you want your filling, you may want to double this recipe. I decided to make ridiculously thick-stuffed cookies and must say, I didn’t regret it! They are darn sweet, though, so for a less sweet taste you might stick with less filling. 🙂
This is easy to make by hand. You want a thick, stiff buttercream filling, not a light and fluffy frosting. Cream the butter until it is nice and smooth. Slowly incorporate the powdered sugar then add the raspberries. The chunkier pieces are okay in here. They add nice texture and flavor.
Look at that color! It was impossible to not keep licking the spoon. Heavenly!
You could use a knife to spread the filling on the cookies. I find that it is easier, less messy, and makes a better presentation to pipe the filling on with a wide piping tip on a decorating bag. I used a Wilton® # 14 tip.
For the double heart and heart with arrow remember you can use mirror-image cookies to get the best fit. Match cookies up by size, pipe filling onto the bottom cookie and gently press the top one down.
The piping technique makes nice clean side edges that look pretty.
Now do any decorating you like. I kept it very simple.
I truly like the look of them un-decorated, but some simple decors add a nice touch and a bit of pizzazz. I melted some of the semi-sweet baking bar per instructions and used some to dip hearts in (some I didn’t even sandwich as that seemed almost too much!). Then I used a small hole tip on a decorating bag to drizzle decorative lines and outline some words. I also piped the raspberry buttercream on as decoration. A few sprinkles, nonpareils, and decors here and there and I was done.
This is a buttercream so remember to put them in the refrigerator if you’re not going to eat them all right away. Yeah, good luck with that! 😉
I wish you all a love-filled Valentine’s day full of chocolate and lots of hugs. ❤
Happy Baking!
~Susie
Disk Designer/Co-Owner at Impress! Bakeware, LLC
Our website has all of our 200+ disk shapes, cookie press, embossed rolling pins, luster dusts, baking accessories plus more about our Women/Family Owned company! impressbakeware.com
All products are on our Etsy shop.
Our cookie press, disks, and embossed rolling pins are also available on Amazon
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The Valentine’s Day and Wedding Sets:
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