Chocolate Raspberry Condensed Milk Cookies

As I sat down over the weekend to brainstorm about a Valentine's Day cookie recipe I wondered what it was as a child that I loved so much. Growing up in Peru, we had different treats... tons of chocolate, unreal tasting fruits and an addiction to condensed milk and dulce de leche AKA manjar blanco. I used to eat fruit like bananas or strawberries completely drenched in condensed milk. I could seriously take a can and drink the milk from it which would cause a major sugar headache and tummy ache but I didn't care... it was so good it was worth it. I find that in the US, condensed milk is not as widely loved as it is in Peru and that really baffles me! It really is NOT healthy in any way thats for sure... but seriously, if I had to choose 2 foods to eat for the rest of my life it would be pizza and condensed milk. Maybe not together though ;)

Another food I have put condensed milk on is graham crackers... and I have made different kinds of sweets with those two and fruit. But never have I made a more traditional cookie with condensed milk.... So my recipe wheels started to churn. I looked some things up online, how could I incorporate this into my cookie? I had to take out other wet ingredients besides the butter so I omitted the eggs. But I did want a different layer of flavor to the cookie so I thought, why not add a fruit... raspberry preserves.... oh yeaaaa! 

My recipe was evolving and I liked it... When I tasted this cookie it was soft like a shortbread cookie and I LOVE shortbread so that was A-OK with me. You can taste the creaminess of the condensed milk blended with the ooey gooey ghirardelli chocolate chips and the raspberry preserves gave it a bit of a tart dimension. 

I played around with the timing of this cookie in the oven. I for one like soft cookies, but my Valentine likes a bit of a crunch. So for me, 16 minutes was perfect, but for him I left some cookies in for 17-18 minutes and it gave it a little extra crunch on the outside. 

I brought the cookies to a Super Bowl party and all my taste testers there loved them, I was very happy that I could make a great tasting cookie which incorporated one of my childhood favorite sweets!

They were actually so good that we left the leftovers at the party in fear that we would eat them all! We still have resolutions ya know... gotta keep it to one or two cookies per batch :) Unless its a lightened up recipe, and in that case, I will probably eat the whole batch after telling myself "hey its a light recipe, you'll be fine!" These are definitely NOT low calorie cookies, but hey, its Valentines Day, and we all deserve a cheat day, especially on Valentine's Day!  

Servings 18-20 cookies
Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 can condensed milk 
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2.5 cups of flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups Ghirardelli chocolate chips
• 4 heaping tbsp raspberry preserves 

Directions:

• Set your oven to 350 degrees.
• In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla, until smooth.
• Add flour, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. Mix well. 
• At this point you just need to add the preserves. Grab a spoon and sort of cut into the dough with the preserves. You don't want to mix in the preserves, you just want to barely swirl it in. Like so.... 

• With a tablespoon or a cookie scoop, scoop balls of the dough and shape it round on the cookie sheet. You don't have to place them too far from each other as they won't rise or spread very much. 

• Place the cookies in the oven for 15-17 minutes... 15 if you like a softer cookie, 17 if you want a little crunch. They will not rise or change colors very much so don't worry! 
• Leave them on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Enjoy with a tall glass of milk!

Let me know what you think and happy Valentine's Day to you lovers and dreamers :) 
xoxo