These Strawberry Shortbread Cookies are full of strawberry flavor thanks to the freeze dried strawberry in the cookie dough. Dressed up with a strawberry glaze, they are ready for a summer party in the backyard.
Shortbread cookies are my weakness. Every time I set foot in Hawaii, I have to make a pit stop at Foodland (a local Hawaiian chain grocery store) to pick up a few boxes of different flavors and hide them in my suitcase. I love them so much that I’ve been going shortbread crazy on the blog. And today, let me introduce you to my newest flavor, the Strawberry Shortbread Cookies.
How to Make Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
All shortbread cookies start with a basic of butter, sugar, salt and flour. A splash of pure vanilla extract goes a long way to help enhance the cookie flavor even if your main flavor is not vanilla, without it the cookies can turn out a bit flat.
Using Freeze Dried Strawberry
Freeze dried strawberries are great for this recipe because it does not add any extra liquid to the dough, and its flavor is extremely concentrated. I’ve used it before in this Chocolate Covered Strawberry Truffle Pops recipe and had an amazing result.
You will need to process the freeze dried strawberry into a powder using a food processor. Drape a towel over the food processor while it is running to keep the strawberry powder from puffing everywhere. After you turn off the food processor, allow it to settle for a few minutes before opening it up. I find that a sprinkle of flour over the strawberry powder can help scraping it out of the food processor bowl an easier task.
Mixing the Dough
Allow butter to soften at room temperature, but not melted. You only want it soft enough to be malleable, but not so much that the cookie dough becomes a sticky mess. Beat the butter with sugar and vanilla extract until well mixed and fluffy. Add the dry ingredients and mix until a pink dough forms like so.
Bake and Glaze
I use a fluted Linzer cookie cutter without the insert for this recipe, but any similar size cookie cutter will work just fine. If you want to forgo the cookie cutter, just cut them up with a knife into squares. I always freeze the sliced cookies before baking; this will allow them to keep their shape better in the oven and is absolutely necessary in my book.
Make sure the strawberry shortbread cookies are completely cool before you add the strawberry glaze. You can serve them right away or allow the glaze to harden for a few hours before packing them up.
Shortbread Cookie Inspired By My Trips to Hawaii
- Chocolate Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies
- Matcha Green Tea Shortbread Cookies
View all shortbread cookies recipe
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment, rate it and don’t forget to tag me @wildwildwhisk on Instagram. I’d love to see what’s cooking up in your kitchen. Cheers!
📖 Recipe card
Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
Strawberry shortbread
- 4 ounce unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- ½ oz freeze dried strawberry
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- Extra sugar for sprinkling
Strawberry glaze
- 2 tablespoon pureed strawberry
- ½ cup powder sugar
- Crushed freeze dried strawberry
Instructions
Bake the cookies
- Let butter soften at room temperature out on the counter, but not melted.
- Ground the freeze dried strawberry in a food processor.
- Add flour, salt and ground freeze dried strawberry into a small mixing bowl, mix well to distribute thoroughly.
- Add sugar, soften butter and vanilla extract to the stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle attachment until combined.
- Reduce mixer speed to low, and slowly add the flour mixture. Continue to mix on low speed until dough comes together. It should pull away from the side of the mixing bowl.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board or counter top, and shape into a disk.
- Wrap well with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Roll dough to about ¼” thick and cut out cookies with a 2” round or fluted cookie cutter. Re-roll the scrap dough and cut out more cookies until finished.
- Place the cookies in a container in layers, with parchment paper in between, and freeze for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F while the cookies are resting in the freezer.
- When the oven is ready, place cookies on a parchment line baking sheet an inch or two apart, sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of cookies generously and bake for 16-17 minutes just until the bottom is lightly brown.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the glaze
- Puree a handful of strawberries in a food processor or blender to obtain 2 tablespoon of liquid.
- Whisk the puree strawberry with powder sugar to form a glaze.
- Use a fork to drizzle glaze over the cool cookies.
- Garnish with some freeze dried strawberry crumbles.
Nutrition
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is there any alternative to the freeze dried strawberries? surprisingly, where I live it is really hard to find.
Hi Nabila, I’m sorry it’s not easy to find where you are… the only thing I can think of is strawberry flavor gelatin, but then I think it will taste quite artificial in this case. Perhaps you can use a very thick strawberry jam and fold it into the dough.
Fantastic recipe. I will absolutely be making this again. Thanks for the great cookies!
This recipe is great! I tested it out last night. I only baked mine for 11.5 minutes because that’s how long I do most other shortbread recipes in my oven. They have a beautiful natural color and the flavor is so much better than I had expected. I also didn’t need the entire amount of flour, but my house has been dry lately.
Great Ericka! I’m glad you baked them according to your oven, only you know it best. I’m happy you liked these 🙂
This recipe was terrible – absolutely nothing worked as it was supposed to. The glaze was too thin; the dough, which I doubled because 16 cookies didn’t seem like very much, barely made 20 cookies and the ones that I have tried have only the tiniest hint of strawberry flavour. 350 for 16 minutes is too long for shortbread and it’s only because of my many times baking other shortbread recipes that I avoided burning the bottoms. And on top of that, the *unburnt* cookies are dry. 0/5 stars, not worth the time, money, or effort.
Hi Christina, I’m sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. I’ve made it multiple times, for birthday parties, and have always had positive feedback. I’ve also made a lot of shortbread and 15-16 minutes have always been the baking time for pretty much all variety of my shortbread recipes. However, the baking time is specific to my oven and oven temperature can vary from one to another. And of course if you have a convection oven, it should be lowered. I’m truly saddened that this didn’t work for you. I will be more than happy to help you troubleshoot if you ever decide to give it another try. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to give me your feedback.
I too am a lover of shortbread and your idea of using freeze dried strawberries to flavour them is pure genius. Love these cookies