Tender, pale pink strawberry shortbread cookies with an optional strawberry glaze are the sweetest way to enjoy bold strawberry flavor in cookie form. The cookies are buttery, lightly sweet, and a bit tart with true strawberry flavor. Add to the bright flavor by making the strawberry glaze with more freeze dried berries, powdered sugar, and a bit of lemon juice. These cookies are perfect for enjoying all year round. Bake them up for Valentine's Day when fresh strawberries feel far out of reach.
Freeze-dried strawberries are the key here; this recipe uses the equivalent of over half a pound of fresh strawberries! When they are dried, the strawberry flavor is concentrated and there's no moisture to ruin the texture of the buttery shortbread. Check out this strawberry goat cheese salad with strawberry-dusted goat cheese if you have extra freeze-dried berries on hand.
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Ingredients
I include ingredient notes here when I think they'll be helpful, including ways to source, any preparation tips, or why I've chosen a particular ingredient. Be sure to check out the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and their quantities!
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries - These crisp, shelf-stable berries are sliced and freeze dried, removing all moisture. They have a concentrated strawberry flavor. They are available in supermarkets, Trader Joe's, and Costco.
- All-Purpose Flour - This pantry staple is perfect for a shortbread cookie with a balanced protein content.
- Powdered Sugar - Also called confectioner's sugar, powdered sugar contains finely ground sugar and cornstarch. This promotes a crumbly light texture in your shortbread cookies.
- Salted Butter - This recipe was developed with salted butter. If you only have unsalted butter, add ¼ teaspoon of kosher salt to your dough.
- Baking Powder - Baking powder gives lift to your shortbread and gives them a lighter texture.
- Lemon - Fresh lemon juice is added to the strawberry glaze to add a bright citrus note that complements the strawberries well. If you don't want to glaze your cookies, you won't need any lemon.
Instructions for Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
Use a mortar and pestle, mini blender, or food processor to grind the freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder. Make sure that any tool you use is completely dry before adding the berries. You can also add them to a zip bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Add room temperature butter to a mixing bowl and cream it until pale in color and fluffy in texture.
Add the powdered sugar and one ounce of the strawberry powder to the butter.
Slowly incorporate the sugar and freeze-dried strawberry powder into the butter. Once the powders are incorporated, increase the speed of the mixer and whip the mixture for one minute.
Add the flour and baking powder to the mixture.
Start with the mixer on low and incorporate the flour and baking powder into the dough. The dough will appear very dry and crumbly at first.
Increase the speed of the mixer and the dough will come together after about one minute of mixing.
Divide the dough into two equal portions.
With each portion of dough, form a log that is about 12 inches long. Wrap each log separately in plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and slice it into 24 discs, about ½-inch wide. Roll the log as you slice to keep the round shape.
Place the dough discs on the lined pans, evenly spacing them.
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until they are no longer shiny and have puffed up a bit. Midway through the baking you should rotate the pans from top to bottom racks.
Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
The cookies can be enjoyed as-is for a lightly sweet and tart flavor with soft texture.
Instructions for Strawberry Glaze
To make the strawberry glaze, add ¼ ounce of ground strawberry powder to a small bowl along with ½ cup of powdered sugar. Juice a lemon to yield one tablespoon of juice. Add this to the powdered sugar mixture.
Stir the glaze together until smooth. Add water, one teaspoon at a time, until you get a glaze texture that falls in thick ribbons from the end of the whisk or spoon.
Dip the cookies in the glaze and remove any excess from the bottom. Place them on the parchment paper from baking or on the wire rack. Allow them to dry fully so that the icing is hardened.
You can garnish the cookies while the glaze is still wet. Add extra freeze-dried strawberries or ground berry powder. Glaze one half of each cookie, or spoon a bit of glaze over the top of each cookie.
Substitutions and Variations
The substitutions listed below have been tested in this recipe and work well. If you successfully make any other ingredient substitutions, let us know in the comments!
- Add Food Color - The cookies are naturally a muted pink color thanks to the freeze-dried strawberries.. If you want a brighter pink, add a few drops of pink food coloring to the dough along with the powdered sugar and berry powder.
- Sugared Edges - As an alternative to glazing the cookies, you can roll the dough logs in a coarse sugar before slicing and baking the cookies. This will give the edges of the strawberry shortbread a sweet texture contrast.
- Chocolate Dipped Cookies - Swap strawberry glaze for chocolate! Melt milk chocolate or semisweet morsels in short bursts in the microwave. Dip the baked cookies in the melted chocolate and allow the chocolate to cool and harden.
- Rolled Cookies - You can roll the dough to ½-inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper instead of forming logs. Chill the rolled dough and then use a small cookie cutter to cut the cookies before baking as directed.
Equipment
Make your strawberry shortbread cookies with ease using these kitchen tools:
- Electric Mixer - I often reach for a stand mixer when baking, but smaller batch recipes are better suited to an electric mixer. These strawberry shortbread cookies require a fair bit of mixing, so an electric mixer will save your arm.
- Single-Serve Blender - While a mortar and pestle is my favorite tool for turning the freeze-dried strawberries into a powder, it's not a common tool. Use a small blender instead. As long as it is completely dry, it will make quick work of the berries and create a uniform powder.
- Citrus Reamer - I find pressed glass reamers with a dish to catch the juice and a spout for easy pouring at the thrift store all the time. For the small amount of lemon juice needed here, use a mini reamer or a citrus press.
Serving Suggestions
These sweet little strawberry shortbread cookies are great in lunchboxes, as after-school snacks, or with a cup of tea in the afternoon.
Storage
Store these cookies in an airtight container right on your countertop for up to a week. They will get softer and more tender the longer they sit. You can also freeze baked cookies layered in an airtight container for up to three months.
Make-Ahead Options
You can make the dough, portion it, and roll it into a log for refrigeration in one day and leave the baking to the next day. You can also freeze the wrapped dough logs for up to three months for future baking. Thaw frozen dough in the refrigerator for 24 hours before slicing and baking as directed.
FAQ
You can make shortbread with any freeze-dried fruit. Berries like blueberries or raspberries work best because of their bold flavor and touch of acidity.
"Short" is a baking term for any dough that has a higher proportion of butter to flour. Often, a shortbread recipe will follow a 1-2-3 method, meaning one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour. This amount of butter prevents long gluten strands from forming, resulting in a tender and crumbly cookie texture.
Confectioner's sugar contains a bit of starch, usually cornstarch. This small amount can give you more tender baked goods with chewy centers and less spreading when baked. For these strawberry shortbread cookies, the added cornstarch keeps them soft and tender during storage.
Sweet Strawberry Recipes
When strawberries are in season, their sweet aroma and bright flavor can't be beat. Try any of the recipes below to take advantage of this seasonal fruit:
More Cookies!
You can't have too many recipes for delicious cookies! Check out the recipes below for some new flavors:
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Recipe
Strawberry Shortbread Cookies with Strawberry Glaze
Ingredients
Strawberry Shortbread
- 1 cup butter (salted)
- ⅔ cup powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar)
- 1 oz freeze-dried strawberries
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Strawberry Icing
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ oz freeze-dried strawberries (plus additional for garnish)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
- Use a very dry food processor, mortar and pestle, or mini blender to pulverize the freeze-dried strawberries and turn them into a fine powder.
- Cream the butter using an electric mixer or stand mixer until it is pale in color and light in texture.
- Add the ⅔ cup powdered sugar and 1 ounce (28g) of the strawberry powder to the butter. Slowly mix them into the butter and then increase the speed on your mixer so that you can whip the butter and sugar together for 1 minute.
- Add the flour and baking powder. Incorporate it into the butter and sugar mixture by starting on the lowest speed and slowly increasing the speed. the dough will be very crumbly at first, but will come together after about a minute of mixing.
- Divide the dough into two equal portions. Form a log that's about 12 inches long with each portion. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Remove the dough from the wrap and slice it into 24 discs, about ½-inch wide. Roll the dough as you slice to avoid getting a flat side.
- Place the discs on the parchment paper, evenly spacing them with about ½- to 1-inch space.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, swapping the pans from the top shelf to the bottom (and vice versa) halfway through for even baking.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for about 2 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Strawberry Icing
- While the cookies cool, add ½ cup powdered sugar to a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and ¼ ounce strawberry powder. Stir well and then add water, one teaspoonful at a time, until the icing is a good texture for dipping the cookies.
- Dip half the cookie in the icing, allow excess to drip off, and place it on the parchment from the baking pan or over the wire rack. Garnish the icing with additional dried strawberry powder or dried strawberries, if desired.
- Allow the cookies to dry until the icing has hardened.
Nutrition facts are sometimes provided below and are calculated using an online calculator. With specific brands of ingredients and additions, omissions, or substitutions the nutrition facts may change. We encourage you to use your own nutrition facts calculator to obtain the most accurate nutrition facts for your meal.
Cassie Waltman says
These are perfect for the cookie jar, but they don't last long!