My kids LOVE this recipe! These strawberries and cream cookies taste like sweet cream and fresh strawberries! How? We pack the cookie dough with freeze-dried strawberries (not frozen strawberries!) and white chocolate chips.
Ready in less than 30 minutes, these strawberry cookies are the perfect summer dessert!
Freeze Dried Strawberries for Strawberry Cookies?
Wanna make strawberry cookies without a ton of red food coloring and artificial flavors? You can thanks to freeze-dried strawberries. Have you tried them in baking recipes yet? I wasn’t sure how I would feel about them since I almost always prefer fresh fruit over… well, not fresh fruit.
But spoiler alert: freeze dried strawberries are AMAZING! Especially when baked in strawberry cookies! They work so much better in cookies than frozen strawberries or fresh strawberries. Because they add strawberry flavor without adding unwanted excess moisture.
Why You’ll Love this Recipe:
- Freeze-dried strawberries add fresh strawberry flavor without making the cookies mushy or wet. Such a huge baking win!
- Creamy white chocolate chips add a creamy flavor that makes you think you’re eating strawberries and cream.
- These cookies are big, thick, and chewy!
- No cookie dough chilling required – they’re fast to make.
- Absolutely stunning!
Strawberry Cookie Baking Must Haves
- Flour: All-purpose flour is what you’ll want to use here! I have never tried making these GF, but a 1 for 1 gluten free flour might work if you’re up for experimenting. For best results, measure your flour with a digital scale!
- Baking Soda: Helps our cookies spread! Be sure to use baking soda, and not baking powder, will would give you puffy hockey puck like cookies.
- Salt: Added in with our other dry ingredients, salt helps balance the flavors and sweetness. Don’t skip this ingredient!
- Unsalted Butter: You’ll need to beat the unsalted butter until it’s light and fluffy, so make sure your butter is softened to room temperature before beginning. To speed this process up, you can cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place them in a small bowl until they’re softened to room temp. Never microwave, which more often than not gives you melted butter. Which we don’t want!
- Granulated Sugar: Our main sweetener! I use more than a cup of granulated sugar to help sweeten these strawberry cookies.
- Brown Sugar: Be sure to pack it in the measuring cup if you’re not weighing your ingredients. Light brown sugar works best, but dark brown sugar will work in a pinch.
- Vanilla Extract: I suggest pure vanilla extract, or a high-quality bourbon vanilla extract, but never imitation vanilla or artificial vanilla.
- Eggs: Make sure they’re large eggs and at room temperature. Otherwise they won’t bond properly with the butter and sugars.
- White Chocolate Chips: Ghirardelli or Guittard are my fave for white chocolate chips! They’re so creamy and delicious. And almost add a cream cheese flavor to the cookies.
- Freeze Dried Strawberries: Natierra is my favorite brand and if you can find them, the one I recommend using! I have no affiliation with this brand, they’re just really really good! Especially in these cookies.
One-Bowl Strawberry Cookie Dough
These strawberries and cream cookies are so easy to make in just one bowl. And no cookie dough chilling means you can be eating them within 30 minutes!
Simply bust out a large bowl, and mix the butter with an electric mixer, then toss in the sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture. Then add in your baking soda, salt, and flour. Finally, beat in the white chocolate chips and strawberries! That’s it! You’re ready to bake.
Just be sure you don’t over bake your cookies. And that you place the pans on wire racks to cool for at least 10 minutes before eating or transferring to a serving platter.
How to Make Strawberry Cookies:
- Make the cookie dough. No need to chill! But if you want really thick cookies, you can chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
- Scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.
- Bake until spread and golden.
- Cool for at least 15 minutes – or cool completely.
- Eat your cookies warm, wrap and save for a few days, or freeze for up to 2 months!
Can I make these in Advance?
Sure! While the dough doesn’t need to be chilled, it certainly can be. Instead of refrigerating the entire cookie bowl of cookie dough, my advice is to scoop and roll the cookie dough onto a large baking sheet, lightly cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake, up to 2 days. Want to make them even further in advance? Read my freezing tips below!
Does the Dough Freeze?
It sure does! Simply scoop the dough onto a large baking sheet and place the baking sheet in the freezer (in a safe space it won’t get smushed) until the dough balls are frozen solid. Then transfer the cookie dough balls into freezer-safe ziplock bags and place in the freezer for up to 2 months. When you’re ready to bake, remove the cookie dough from the freezer and bake as directed in the recipe below. Just note you may need to add an extra minute or two onto the bake time when baking from a frozen state. Cold dough takes a little longer to bake!
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