Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies
So you love sugar cookies, but want to add a little bit of pizzazz? Try out this Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookie recipe that uses freeze dried strawberries for genuine strawberry flavor.
Whether you’re making these cookies for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, or just for fun, you’re going to love the fresh strawberry flavor you get with this recipe, while the dough remains easy to work with and create fun shapes.
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Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookie: Ingredients
Let’s go over the ingredients needed to make these Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies!
Butter: I prefer salted, but you can use unsalted as long as you add an additional 1/4 tsp per 4 oz of butter
Cream Cheese: This is a non negotiable for my cut out sugar cookies! It adds delicious tang and flavor
Granulated Sugar: Enough for flavor and structure, but not enough to make it too sweet
Whole Egg plus 1 Yolk: The extra yolk adds chewiness!
Vanilla Extract: Just a little bit of vanilla pairs beautifully with the strawberry flavor while still letting the berry notes be the star
Flour: All Purpose works best for this recipe
Freeze Dried Strawberries: Brings authentic strawberry flavor without throwing off the moisture level of the cookies
Salt: Salt balances and enhances the flavors
Cornstarch: Makes the cookie dough texture easier to work with, and also hold it’s shape better
Using Freeze Dried Fruit in Cookie Dough
Let’s talk about the freeze dried strawberries a bit more!
Freeze dried strawberries work so well in cookie dough because it doesn’t add more liquid and change the consistency the way strawberry puree or fresh strawberries do.
By grinding up the freeze dried berries, you can create a potent fruit flavor that you can swap out for some of your dry ingredients. In this case, I used my classic Soft and Chewy Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe and subbed 2 oz of the flour for 2 oz of the freeze dried strawberry powder.
Creating Freeze Dried Fruit Powder
To pulverize the freeze dried berries, use a small food processor or blender! My mini food processor recently bit the dust so I upgraded to this Kitchen Aid 3.5 Cup Size and I’ve been super happy with it.
Where to Find Freeze Dried Fruit
If your grocery store is hit and miss with whether or not they carry freeze dried strawberries, or you want to get a better cost per ounce, I recommend this brand, particularly when it’s on sale!
If you have extra freeze dried fruit, you can use it for snacking, or as a flavor boost in things like smoothies, yogurt, ice cream, and more. I’m currently working on a strawberry buttercream recipe using freeze dried strawberries so stay tuned!
Making The Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookie Dough
Combining Dry Ingredients
First, measure out 2 oz of the freeze dried strawberries and pulverize in a mini food processor or blender until you’ve reached a powder consistency.
Don’t have a food processor or blender? Smash the berries using a mortar and pestle or something similar until you’ve reached the powder consistency.
Next, whisk your flour, salt, freeze dried strawberry powder, and cornstarch together in a medium size bowl and set aside for later. Shout out to John from Preppy Kitchen for introducing me to the idea of adding cornstarch to sugar cookies! Adding cornstarch makes a huge difference in the spread, and workability of the dough.
Combining the Cream Cheese, Butter, and Sugar
Mix your just softened but not squishy butter in the bowl of an electric mixer just until it begins to evenly spread around the sides as shown in the photo below. This is where you’ll need to add your cold cream cheese, and then beat until combined. Don’t go overboard on this, but do make sure they’ve fully incorporated by scraping down the bowl and beater as needed along the way.
Next, add in your sugar and beat until incorporated. Once again, we’re not looking to add a ton of air by beating for long periods of time. Excess air in a dough can also lead to spreading.
Tip: Scraping down your bowl frequently will help ingredients evenly incorporate more quickly, lessening your chances of overworking your dough! I really like this stiffer silicone spatula for making cookie dough that I’ll link below.
Add in the Eggs & Extract
Add in the egg and yolk, along with the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Mix in the Dry Ingredients
With your mixer on low, slowly add in the flour mixture. Keep an eye on it so you can turn it off when you see there are no more dry ingredient streaks remaining.
Give the bowl and beater a thorough scrape to ensure there are no wet ingredients remaining. Evenly mixed dough increases the consistency of your cookies from the first one you roll out, to the last!
Chilled VS Non Chilled Sugar Cookie Dough
Now here’s where you get to choose your own adventure. A hot topic in the world of sugar cookies is chill time. I did a poll on Instagram to hear what people prefer when it comes to having to chill sugar cookies, and the vast majority of bakers were totally fine with it if it meant better cookies in the end!
Here’s the cool thing about this dough. You can totally get away with not chilling it.You’ll need a bit more flour as you roll it out, and you’ll probably have a pinch more spread in the oven (but when I say pinch, I mean less than 1/8 inch difference from chilled dough option). If 1/4 inch total spread (1/8 inch per side) across your cookie is no biggie to you, by all means, feel free to skip chilling your dough!
Chilling the dough for 2 hours makes the dough SUPER easy to work with, and you need less flour to roll it out which is helpful. My preferred method is to chill my dough in one or two saran wrapped 1″ thick discs or squares for two hours before rolling, cutting, and baking.
Rolling Out the Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookie Dough
When it comes to rolling out sugar cookie dough, I can’t recommend a rolling pin with guide rings enough. These bad boys make quick and consistent work of rolling out any kind of dough. I prefer to roll sugar cookies out at 3/8 of an inch so they stay thick and chewy. I’ll throw a link down below to a rolling pin similar to the one I use!
When rolling out your dough, your goal should be to handle it the least amount possible. The more you work your dough, the more it is likely to spread. Get as many shapes as you can out of each roll out!
I recommend picking your dough up every several rolls and swiping over the counter and backside of the dough to make sure you have an adequate amount of flour to reduce sticking! If you roll your dough out all at once, you might get to the end and realize your dough is stuck to your counter making your shapes a bit more difficult to remove.
TIP: You can use a small offset spatula to move your cookie shapes from the counter to your trays to avoid pinching or bumping the dough
As you go, you can dip your cookie cutter in a bowl of flour to make the dough release even more easily.
Baking the Cookies
Baking Equipment
Now that you have your dough rolled and cut, you may be asking, what is the best surface to bake sugar cookies on? I will pass along a recommendation to use either parchment paper, or a silicone mat. Avoid anything greased or non stick, because that can lead to extra spreading. With how well this recipe holds it’s shape, you can really pack a lot onto one tray (just don’t go any close than 1″ apart)
I used to use parchment paper, but I’ve switched to baking my cookies on a silicone mat! Here’s a link to one of my favorite mats.
Bake Time and Checking for Doneness
Bake your cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-13 minutes, or until cookies are no longer shiny on top. Some people who’ve tried this say their ovens bake them a bit faster, so just take a peak at them halfway through and adjust the time as necessary. Also, if you roll the cookies out thinner or use small cookie cutters, the cookies will also need less time to bake.
To see if the cookies are done, look for the sheen to go from shiny, to an even eggshell finish. Making sure you don’t over-bake your cookies is a key step in having a moist result that isn’t dried out. Shoot to have no brown edges/bottoms on the cookies.
Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookie Tips Summary
- Use cold ingredients to make the dough
- Avoid over mixing
- Scrape down the bowl often
- Chill dough for two hours to achieve the best workability and the least amount of spreading
- Handle dough/re-roll as few times as possible
- Use a rolling pin with guide rings for consistent dough thickness
- Dip cookie cutter in flour as you go to help the dough release more easily
- Bake cookies on a silicone mat or parchment paper
- Bake cookies for 10-13 minutes, until the sheen of the tops has changed from shiny, to an even eggshell/matte finish. Avoid over baking and do not brown edges/bottoms. Rotate your baking sheet halfway through the bake time.
- Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting
Freeze Dried Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies Frequently Asked Questions
Can I substitute a different freeze dried fruit powder to create different flavors?
Although I haven’t personally tested this, I see no reason why swapping out a different fruit powder wouldn’t work! Give it a try and let me know how it goes! A few thoughts if you do, if you use a less flavorful fruit, you may need to use more powder and compensate by removing more flour from the dry ingredients.
You’ll also need to consider what extracts would pair best with the fruit you choose. I typically recommend using anywhere between 2-3 tsp of extract in sugar cookies depending on the balance of your flavors.
Can I use fresh strawberries instead of freeze dried strawberries in sugar cookies?
I don’t recommend using straight up fresh strawberries because the excess moisture can cause issues in the dough consistency. You’d have to experiment with different ratios to change the recipe that much.
Can I use unsalted butter instead of salted?
Yes you can swap out unsalted for salted butter in baking! If you use unsalted, just add an additional heaping 1/4 tsp of salt per 4 oz stick of butter.
Is it more accurate to measure ingredients by weight, or volume in measuring cups?
Measuring by weight will give you the most accurate results and will be the most true to how this recipe was developed. Depending how densely packed an ingredient is, the amount that fits in 1 cup can vary. If you choose to use cups, I would recommend spooning your flour into the measuring cup rather than scooping it out with the measuring cup itself.
Do these cookies hold their shape?
These cookies hold their shape extremely well! I developed it to be soft and delicious, but still hold clean lines to create beautiful backdrops for decorating. Even with zero chilling, this recipe spreads less than 1/4 inch total. To achieve the sharpest shapes (less than 1/8 inch total spread), chill the dough for two hours before rolling, cutting, and baking.
How can I get the least amount of spread in my cookies?
- Use cold ingredients.
- Avoid over mixing, over handling, and over rolling your dough. The more air you incorporate, the more potential spread you may have.
- Chill your dough for two hours before rolling, and if you want to go the extra mile you can even chill your cookie shapes on the baking sheet for ten minutes after cutting your shapes to further reduce spread!
- Bake cookies on silicone mats or parchment paper. Do not use any type of greased or non stick metal because the cookies will have less “grip” and will spread further.
- Bake at the proper temperature. Using too low of a temperature causes the butter to melt and spread before the cookie has begun to set. Use an oven thermometer to get accurate readings on your oven’s temperature.
- Use a recipe (like this one!) that doesn’t include leaveners like baking soda and baking powder.
- Use quality aluminum baking sheets that will evenly conduct heat. (Not dark colored)
Do I have to chill the dough?
You can totally get away without chilling this dough. However, you will need to use a bit more flour when rolling it out, and it might spread a pinch more (and when I say a pinch, I mean less than 1/8 of an inch more than if you were to chill it). For BEST results, chill the dough for two hours before rolling, cutting, and baking. To chill, I prefer to divide the dough into two halves, and then wrap each half in saran wrap and press it into a disc that’s one inch thick. Chilling makes the dough’s consistency a dream to roll and cut shapes, and produces a cookie with little to no spread. We’re talking 1/8 of an inch to none.
Can I make the dough in advance?
Yes! Cookie dough will last three days in an airtight container in the refrigerator, and in the freezer for two months.
Can I freeze the cookies once they’ve been baked?
Yes! Baked unfrosted cookies will last 3 months in an airtight container in the freezer.
Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie Buttercream
Allow the cookies to cool before frosting. I’ve included my go to Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie Buttercream that has one more unexpected ingredient that creates the dreamiest flavor! It’s also not overly sweet like a lot of American buttercreams can be so you won’t feel like you have to skimp on the frosting to avoid a toothache.
Unlike the cookie dough, you DO want to beat the butter until light and fluffy for longer periods of time. It makes a big difference in the density and sweetness of your buttercream! Then once you’ve added your extracts, powdered sugar, salt, and then beat it until the whole mixture is light and fluffy, we can move along to my favorite addition.
Say hello to my last key ingredient, French Vanilla Coffee Creamer! You could totally sub this for heavy cream if you’d like to and just compensate with extra vanilla and almond extract to taste, but honestly, you should definitely give the french vanilla a chance! P.S. the salt in the buttercream is important to give balance to the sweetness, so don’t skip it!
I really wanted this buttercream to be creamy and delicious, so I increased the amount of butter I usually add to a buttercream. It does create an “off white” frosting, but I think the flavor and texture is worth it. If you’d like to reduce the yellow coloring a smidge, you can add a TINY tiny amount of purple food coloring which will tip the color to a cooler shade. Go small on this though because you can always put more in, but you can’t take it back out!
To smooth out air bubbles in your buttercream, I recommend running the mixer on low for at least 5 minutes to work out more of the air pockets, or mix by hand with a silicone spatula.
Frost the strawberry cookies with as little or as much buttercream as you like. Stay tuned for design inspiration! I’m going to be frosting these in cute Valentine designs in the next few days.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! It’s a fun one to mix in the rotation when you want the shapes of sugar cookies with a little more flavor variation.
Looking for more sugar cookie ideas? Check out these ideas!
Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- 6 oz salted butter still cold, but just soft enough to make small dent when pressing firmly on it (12 tbsp)
- 2 oz cream cheese cold (4 tbsp)
- 10.5 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups)
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 12.8 oz all purpose flour (3 cups)
- 2 oz freeze dried strawberries
- ½ tsp salt
- 40 grams cornstarch (1/3 cup)
Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie Buttercream
- 12 oz softened salted butter (1 ½ cups)
- 17 oz powdered sugar (4 cups)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 pinch salt (1/8 tsp ish)
- 1 tbsp french vanilla coffee creamer (Optional sub. heavy cream and add extra vanilla and almond extract to taste)
Instructions
Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- If using the no chill method, preheat oven to 350° and line two baking pans with silicone mats (or parchment paper). If you plan on chilling the dough, preheat the oven and prep pans just before rolling out dough and cutting shapes.
- Pulverize the freeze dried strawberries to a fine powder using a food processor or blender. (If you do not have either of these, use a mortar and pestle or something similar.)
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, freeze dried strawberry powder, salt, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Beat the butter in a large sized bowl using an electric mixer until butter has begun to evenly spread around the sides. Add in cream cheese and mix just until combined. Scrape down the bowl, and repeat.
- Add in granulated sugar, and mix until well combined scraping down the sides of the bowl and beater as you go. Do not continue mixing to make it light and fluffy.
- Mix in the egg and egg yolk, and beat until incorporated. Add in extracts and mix them in as well, once again scraping the bowl to ensure even mixing.
- With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture, and allow dough to come together until no dry ingredient streaks are remaining. Stop the mixer, scrape down the bowl and beater, and beat for another several seconds on medium speed.
- If chilling, press the dough into a 1 inch thick disk or square on saran wrap, and then wrap. Place the dough in the fridge for two hours.
- Lightly flour your work surface and the top of the dough, and roll your dough out until it's 3/8 inch thick. (Rolling pin with thickness rings linked in post) Every several rolls or so, pick the dough up and swipe your hand across the back of it and the counter to check for adequate flour amounts to prevent sticking. Use minimal flour, just enough to prevent dough from sticking to the counter and rolling pin. Dip cookie cutter in flour every other cut to prevent sticking as well.
- Cut out as many cookies as you can from your first roll out, and place them on to the prepared baking sheets with 1" of space minimum. Squish together the scraps without overworking.
- Continue rolling the dough, cutting shapes, and squishing together scraps until no dough remains. (Try not to knead the dough together when working with the scraps, but instead squish it and pull the seams to the backside. The goal is to work the dough the least amount possible.)
- For the most even bake, bake one tray at a time on the center rack for 10-13 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are no longer shiny, but instead are an eggshell/matte finish. Do not bake cookies to the point of browning because it will dry them out. (You can bake multiple trays at a time, but run the risk of cookies baking less evenly. If you choose to do multiples, make sure to rotate trays around halfway through. If you roll the cookies thinner than 3/8, you will also want to bake them a bit less, and should start checking around 7-9 minutes)
- Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting. Store in an airtight container.
Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie Buttercream
- Beat room temperature butter in the bowl of an electric mixer on medium high for 1 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add vanilla and almond extract, and beat for another 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- With the mixer on a low speed, slowly pour in the powdered sugar along with the pinch of salt. Once the dry ingredients have been incorporated, turn the mixer up to medium high and beat for 5 more minutes.
- Turn the mixer on low, pour in the coffee creamer (or heavy cream). Stir until combined, and then allow the mixer to run on a low speed for another 5 minutes remove the majority of the air bubbles. (For optimal decorating texture, allow finished buttercream to thoroughly chill in the fridge, and then rewhip it until smooth but still slightly chilled.)
- Frost cookies in your preferred method, and eat within 3 days. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!
Follow along on Instagram for more baking fun!
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[…] don’t already have a sugar cookie and buttercream go to! You’ll need 1 full batch of my Strawberry Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe for the base. Using a 3″ heart cookie cutter, it should get you around 17 cookies. You […]
As beautiful as they are delicious. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe Laura! Thanks for trying it out!
Just tried this one out! My cookies became matte a little faster than I needed as some of the insides look a little underdone. They are so cute though and did not spread at all with the chilling. Can’t wait to make the buttercream tomorrow and decorate!
The strawberry flavor is so natural and delicious. I wanted a recipe that would work with cookie stamps, and this one is perfect. I wish I could upload a photo. This recipe will be on repeat in my kitchen!
Thank you so much Becky! I really wanted that strawberry flavor to come through with the freeze dried strawberries so I’m thrilled you felt like it hit the mark. So fun that you tried it out with stamps! If you’re on social media feel free to send me a picture there, I’d love to see how they turned out. Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
I just finished baking these and they are absolutely delicious! I had cream cheese buttercream in my freezer and I used that instead. Very, very good! Thank you.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for the kind words! Cream cheese frosting sounds like a delicious option for these.
Absolutely love this recipe! I didn’t make the icing so I can’t comment on that, but the cookie is just perfection! I made them without chilling and they didn’t spread at all! My only comment would be that you can roll them between two sheets of parchment paper without using any flour so then you can roll and reroll without worrying about it drying out. Plus less mess! Thank you for the great recipe!