Frosted Strawberry Cookies

There’s something about a double dose of strawberry that feels extra special, and these frosted strawberry cookies absolutely deliver. Today’s soft-baked, chewy cookies are topped with a naturally pink, flavor-packed strawberry cream cheese frosting, both made with real freeze-dried strawberries. No artificial flavors, no food coloring… just pure, concentrated berry flavor in every bite!

If you’ve ever baked with freeze-dried berries before, you already know their magic: they add bold flavor without extra moisture, which means you can incorporate them into desserts without throwing off the ratio of wet-to-dry ingredients. Total baking lifesavers!

In this recipe, we use freeze-dried strawberries to flavor both the cookie dough and the frosting. They add a bright, concentrated strawberry flavor to each component without affecting texture. And as a bonus, they create that naturally beautiful pink color.

These cookies have all the flavor of this reader-favorite strawberry cake, but with the deliciously soft, chewy texture of a drop sugar cookie. In fact, it’s topped with the very same strawberry cream cheese frosting! 🙂

Here’s what 1 taste tester said, verbatim: “I don’t use this phrase a lot, but you must know that this is the best cookie I have EVER eaten. The flavor is out of this world. It’s as close to eating a strawberry without actually eating a strawberry.”

And best of all, you don’t have to wait for strawberries to be in season to make a batch. (Though a fresh berry on top certainly adds some oomph!)

Here’s Why This Strawberry Cookie Recipe Works

• No artificial flavoring or coloring: Freeze-dried strawberries deliver real strawberry flavor in every bite, without adding unneeded moisture to the dough or frosting. Plus, they tint everything a naturally beautiful shade of pink!
• The secret ingredient: cream cheese! Using cream cheese in the dough balances the sweetness and makes the cookies melt-in-your-mouth tender—soft, chewy, a little creamy, and not crumbly or cakey in the slightest.
• Double the freeze-dried strawberries, double the deliciousness: The cookie dough includes both ground and whole freeze-dried berries. The ground powder adds concentrated flavor, and the whole pieces add chewy texture as well as gorgeous pops of color in every bite.

Ingredients You Need & Why

• Freeze-Dried Strawberries: You need a lot of these, for both the cookies and the frosting. You’ll grind some into a powder, and keep some whole for texture.
• Softened Butter: Be sure to use proper room-temperature butter, which may be cooler than you think (about 65°F (18°C) is ideal). It makes up the base of the frosting as well.
• Cream Cheese: Pick up one block/brick of full-fat cream cheese. You need half for the cookie dough and the other half for the frosting.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens, and helps the cookies spread. We also roll the cookie dough balls in some sugar before baking.
• Egg: One egg binds everything together.
• Vanilla & Salt: Key flavorings in pretty much all our cookie recipes!
• Flour: All-purpose flour provides the structure.
• Baking Soda: Provides lift for thick cookies.
• Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens, thickens, and stabilizes the frosting.

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How to Make Our Winning Batch of Strawberry Cookies

Let me walk you through this recipe with some step photos before you get started. Start by pulsing half the freeze-dried strawberries in your food processor until finely ground:

The rest of the ingredients all come together in one mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar; beat in the egg and vanilla; then add all your dry ingredients. Finally, beat in the remaining half of the freeze-dried strawberries (the ones you kept whole). The mixer will break them down into smaller pieces as it beats them into the dough—that’s exactly what we want.

Because there is no food coloring in the dough, the baked cookies are a pink-tinted beige color. The longer the dough sits in the refrigerator, the more purple-toned it becomes. If you’d like to tint the cookie dough, I recommend red or pink gel food coloring. The pictured dough and cookies were not tinted with food coloring.

This very thick and sticky dough needs to chill for 2 hours before you scoop and roll it. It’s much easier to handle after chilling! Roll the cookie dough balls into some granulated sugar before baking:

Success Tips for the Best Strawberry Cookies

• Use both ground and whole freeze-dried strawberries in the dough for the best flavor and texture (plus all those pretty pink speckles and freckles!)
• Don’t skip chilling the dough: This prevents spreading and improves texture. Keep in mind that if the dough chills for longer than a couple hours, it may take on a purple/grayish hue. The cookies will still taste great, but the color may look a bit different than the cookies pictured here.
• Measure flour correctly: Weigh or spoon and level your flour to avoid dense cookies.
• Bake on light-colored (silver) baking sheets: Dark metal pans conduct heat faster and can cause the cookies to over-brown on the bottom. I always use and recommend these half sheet pans lined with silicone baking mats or parchment paper for cookies.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

While these soft-baked strawberry cookies bring the berry bliss all on their own, a double dose of strawberry sweetness is always a good idea… so we’re adding frosting. I know, I really had to twist your arm there. 😉

We’re using a scaled-down version of the frosting on this strawberry cake. It’s smooth, ultra creamy, and just sweet enough to complement the cookies without overpowering them.

Just like with the cookie dough, ground freeze-dried strawberries are the key to making a strawberry frosting without any artificial flavoring. They deliver the most intense (and natural) strawberry flavor while, at the same time, do not alter the texture of the actual frosting. And they turn it a naturally pretty pink color, too!

If you’d prefer a cream-cheese-less buttercream instead, feel free to use this strawberry buttercream frosting.

If you love these fruity frosted cookies, try these lemon blueberry cookies next!

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