Yield: 8 red white and blue cookies // Total Time: 1 hr. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links.
Marbled and naturally dyed red white and blue cookies, bursting with white chocolate and raspberry flavor!
naturally dyed red white and blue cookies
If you’re looking for some festive fourth of july cookies that don’t require food dye, you’ve come to the right place! These cookies are naturally dyed with butterfly pea powder and freeze-dried raspberries. The benefit to using natural food dye in this case is that you get delicious raspberry flavor marbled throughout the dough. These marble cookies are soft and chewy with crisp edges, filled white chocolate, and are honestly just so fun to look at.
what is butterfly pea flower?!
The butterfly pea flower is a flowering plant that is most often used to make herbal teas. Butterfly pea flower tea is believed to be good for you thanks to the anthocyanins in the plant, which also give it its distinct blue pigment. Butterfly pea powder is simply the flower in powdered form, and is what we’ll be using for these cookies. I will warn that the powder itself has a strong smell like matcha that might seem a little off-putting, but don’t worry! We’re only using a little bit of the powder here which will only yield the slightest taste in the cookies. The main thing we’re using the powder for is to create a fun, naturally-dyed blue cookie dough.
recipe tips
weigh your ingredients
Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient which can give you some undesirable results. This kitchen scale is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out! If you don’t have access to a scale, here is the best way to measure flour: fluff up the flour with a fork, then use a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup. Use a knife to level off the top of the cup, then use as directed.
mix the dough carefully
You’ll want to be super careful when it comes to mixing these cookies, especially since we’ll be mixing the dough quite a bit with the addition of the butterfly pea powder and raspberry powder. Overmixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookies tough and chewy. When you add in the flour mixture, only mix *just until* that last streak of flour disappears.
underbake for perfect cookies
Cookies will continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet after being taken out of the oven. When the edges are golden brown and the middles of the cookies are just a little underdone, they are ready to be taken out of the oven! Let the cookies sit on the hot baking sheet for at least 5 minutes after baking before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
how to get perfectly round cookies
Wanna know the secret to perfectly round cookies? It’s cookie scooting! Right when the cookies come out of the oven, take a bowl, cup, or biscuit cutter that is just slightly larger than your cookies and place it over one of the cookies. Gently swirl the bowl around the cookie to make the cookie perfectly round (and slightly thicker). And that’s all there is to it!
ingredients and substitutions
All purpose flour: for structure and chewiness.
Baking soda & baking powder: helps the cookies rise and the edges crisp up.
Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the cookies.
Granulated sugar & light brown sugar: a combination of both gives us cookies with crispy edges and soft and chewy centers.
Egg: for binding and for moisture.
Vanilla: for flavor.
White chocolate: I used Valrhona feves which I love, but they are definitely on the pricier side and more of a treat-yourself item. If you’re not using feves, I recommend using a white chocolate baking bar. You can also of course use chocolate chips here, just note that the cookies will end up a little thicker.
Butterfly pea powder: what gives these cookies their naturally colored beautiful blue hue. This is the butterfly pea powder that I use.
Freeze-dried raspberry powder: what gives these cookies their naturally colored beautiful red hue. You can also use freeze-dried strawberries here, but note that the red will appear a much lighter pink.
how to make red white and blue cookies
red white and blue cookies q&a
can I use other powders?
Definitely! I made these to be fourth of july cookies, but the powders can easily be swapped out. You could use matcha in place of the butterfly pea powder, freeze-dried strawberries in place of the raspberries, or even do a two-toned raspberry situation. The color and flavor possibilities are really endless in these cookies.
can I double this recipe?
Definitely! You can double or triple the recipe as needed.
can I make these cookies ahead of time?
After marbling the cookies and rolling them into dough balls, you can keep them stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking, or in the freezer for 1 month. If you want to bake them after freezing, note that they will bake up a little thicker and will most likely need an extra minute or two in the oven.
how to store these cookies
Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will keep well for 3 days, but will taste the best on the day that they are baked.
why do you measure in grams?
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale
a note on oven temperature
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
tools and ingredients
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
did you make these red white and blue cookies?
If you made these naturally dyed red white and blue cookies I would love to see them and know your thoughts! Please leave a comment and review down below, and tag me on Instagram @freshbeanbakery. If you have any questions about the recipe I will gladly do my best to answer them in the comments below!
Red White and Blue Cookies
Ingredients
- 90 g unsalted butter (6 ⅓ tbsp.)
- 50 g granulated sugar (¼ c.)
- 100 g light brown sugar (½ c.)
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 160 g all purpose flour (1 ⅓ c.)
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- 60 g white chocolate (⅓ c.) + extra for topping
- 1 tsp. butterfly pea powder
- 2 tbsp. freeze-dried raspberry powder*
Instructions
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, melt the butter in 20 second intervals until it's just melted.
- Whisk in the granulated and brown sugar, followed by the egg and vanilla.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix the ingredients together *just* until the last streak of flour disseapears.
- Divide the dough into thirds into three separate bowls. (about 150g each)
- From this point, you'll want to only mix until the dough is fully cohesive to avoid over-mixing the dough.
- To one bowl, mix in the butterfly pea powder. To another, mix in the freeze-dried raspberry powder. To the last bowl, mix in the white chocolate.
- Use a 1 tbsp. cookie scoop to dish out each flavor of the dough.
- Take one of the raspberry dough and flatten it in your hand, then flatten a white chocolate dough on top of it, followed by the butterfly pea powder dough. Roll the flattened dough into a ball.
- Repeat until you have used all of the dough. If you want to make the dough a little more uniform, you can press it into a 3 tbsp. cookie scoop and release it.
- Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to allow it to firm up.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Place the dough balls evenly spaced apart to allow room for spreading, and top them with more white chocolate if desired.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges turn golden brown and the middle has almost completely set.
- Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, you can take a bowl that is slightly larger than the cookies and swirl it around over the cookies to make them a little more uniform and circular. Serve and enjoy!
JennyK says
These are fabulous! Incredibly easy to make and absolutely delicious! Each of the three colors imparted so much flavor on their own, and also together! These will be on my repeat list even when it’s not 4th of July! Thanks for the awesome butterfly pea powder recipe! Yum!!
Erin says
Thank you so much Jenny! So happy you like the butterfly pea powder recipes! 🙂
Catelyn says
These were so great!! They were surprisingly easy! I did a test run for the 4th and they are definitely staying on the list! My husband and I think they taste like captain crunch! 🙂
Also I’m loving all the recipes with butterfly pea powder!