Soft-baked with crisp edges, loaded with chewy dried strawberries and creamy white chocolate, these strawberries & cream cookies deliver a summery-sweet taste any time of year.
Have you ever tried my strawberry biscuit cookies? Buttery, tender, and flaky, the cookies come together like an actual biscuit dough filled with fresh berries. They’re adorable, sweet, and topped with icing.
But they don’t have that chewy-dense texture we all know and love about, say, chocolate chip cookies. That’s because throwing fresh strawberries into cookie dough creates an overly wet cookie dough… aka a cookie paste. I love the strawberry biscuit cookies, but I never really gave up on my strawberry cookie quest.
Enter freeze-dried strawberries, the magical form of berry goodness that makes strawberry buttercream possible. Give the freeze-dried fruit a rough chop and throw them into cookie dough along with white chocolate chunks and cream cheese. This is a recipe for dessert utopia.
Why You’ll Adore These Strawberries & Cream Cookies
- Cream cheese in the dough makes for soft and creamy-tasting cookies
- The freeze-dried strawberries rehydrate in the dough, so the bits of berry are deliciously chewy (not airy and light)
- Perfectly sweet with gooey pools of melted white chocolate
- Thick and soft-baked center, with crispy edges
- Combination of white chocolate and strawberry is so yummy—just like in these white chocolate strawberry cupcakes
- Enjoy sweet strawberries & cream any time of year!
We’ll use the same cookie dough base as these cookies & cream cookies. Using a combination of butter and cream cheese, the cookies are extra soft and uniquely creamy-tasting. So satisfying.
A Few Key Ingredients You Need
- Cornstarch: I love adding a touch of cornstarch because it helps create a thicker, softer cookie. If you don’t have it, just leave it out.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies puff up and then fall to their crinkly, chewy destiny.
- Cream Cheese: Makes for a deliciously soft and creamy cookie, which is what we all love in these cream cheese sugar cookies.
- White Chocolate: Chopped white chocolate melts into gooey little puddles of sweet creaminess. The pieces on the bottom of the cookies take on a delicious caramelized flavor, too. You can also use white chocolate chips instead, or semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate chips if you prefer.
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries: While these start with a light-as-air dry and crispy texture, the strawberries actually rehydrate in the dough, so they end up delightfully chewy in the baked cookies. (I don’t particularly love the texture of freeze-dried strawberries, but after baking in a wet dough, the texture totally transforms.)
Cream the Butter & Cream Cheese Together First
Creamed room-temperature butter and sugar is the base of many cookie recipes. But before we add the sugar, it’s imperative to properly cream the cream cheese and butter together. The two are different textures—cream cheese is much softer than butter. My tip is to beat the cream cheese in your mixer until very soft and smooth, with no lumps. Then add the softened butter and beat together until combined. This is your creamy base for these strawberries & cream cookies.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries Success Tips
- Where to buy freeze-dried strawberries? I find freeze-dried strawberries in my regular grocery store in the dried fruit aisle. They’re becoming quite common. Trader Joe’s, Amazon, and Target all carry them, as well.
- Mix them into the dough last. Beat in the white chocolate chunks first, and then add in the strawberry pieces on your mixer’s lowest speed, just briefly to incorporate, without letting the mixer crush the berries too much (or you’ll end up with pinkish-taupe cookies). Use the pieces of strawberries, not all the strawberry dust that’s created when you chop the freeze-dried berries. Save that for making the frosting for a strawberry cake!
Expect a thick and sticky dough. Make sure you take the time to chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, otherwise your cookies will spread into shapeless puddles in the oven. The dough stiffens up quite nicely after 2 hours in the refrigerator:
Tips for Shaping Your Cookies
After chilling, scoop the dough (heaping 1.5 Tablespoons/35g in size, I use this medium cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Actually, you want to form them into tall columns (LOL) to help ensure nice thick cookies, like you see me do when making chewy chocolate chip cookies.
These are thick, lumpy-bumpy cookies. Don’t expect them to come out looking uniform, thanks to the chunky pieces of chopped berries and white chocolate, but that’s part of their charm! Check on the cookies about halfway through baking and:
- If they’re not spreading much, take the baking sheet out of the oven and bang it on your counter a couple times, to initiate the spread. The longer you chill the dough, the less the cookies will spread, so if you chill the dough for longer than 2 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before forming into cookies and baking.
- If your cookies are over-spreading or looking really uneven in shape or size, use a spoon to gently press in around the edges to reshape, then return the pans to the oven to finish baking.
I also like to press a few more white chocolate chunks into the tops of the strawberries & cream cookies when they’re still warm, but it’s only for looks. And if you have extra white chocolate, feel free to melt it and drizzle over the cooled cookies.
I included this recipe over on my Valentine’s Day dessert recipes page, but they’re just as tasty without a holiday on the calendar. 🙂 Let’s eat!
Print
Strawberries & Cream Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 28–30 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Using a combination of butter and cream cheese, these strawberry-speckled white chocolate cookies are extra soft and uniquely creamy-tasting. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours before baking.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (112g) block-style cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 ounces (170g) white chocolate, to yield 1 cup white chocolate chunks
- 1 and 1/2 cups (45g) roughly chopped freeze-dried strawberries
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the butter and beat until combined, scraping down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, beat in the white chocolate chunks. Add the freeze-dried strawberries and beat on low speed briefly, until just combined.
- Cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll cookie dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (I use this medium-size cookie scoop), and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 13–15 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more white chocolate chunks into the tops, just for looks.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer or Handheld) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: I love adding a little cornstarch to some cookie recipes because it helps keep the cookies extra soft. You can leave it out if you don’t have any with no other changes to the recipe needed. (The cookies are still pretty soft without it!)
- Cream Cheese: Use half of an 8-ounce block of full-fat cream cheese. Do not use cream cheese spread or whipped cream cheese. If using low-fat or fat-free, keep in mind that the texture of the cookies will be different. They won’t be as rich or chewy and could spread more. I recommend full-fat.
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries: This cookie recipe only works with freeze dried strawberries (or try freeze-dried raspberries or blueberries). Do not use fresh or frozen strawberries. If you want to use those, try these strawberry biscuit cookies instead. I always find freeze-dried strawberries in my regular grocery store in the aisle with the dried fruit. Target, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s carry them, too. Or you can purchase them online.
- White Chocolate: I typically use the Baker’s or Ghirardelli brand white chocolate baking bars, which come in 4-ounce (113g) bars, so I chopped up 1 and 1/2 bars for these cookies. Feel free to use 1 cup white chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: strawberries & cream cookies
I absolutely LOVE this recipe. I’ve made it twice now and the cookies have been perfect! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
★★★★★
I’ve made these twice. I love the texture of them. The one thing I’ve been disappointed in is the lack of strawberry flavor that comes through. I doubled the amount of freeze-dried strawberries the second time in hopes it would come through stronger. They end up tasting like a white chocolate butter cookie. Not bad though not the flavor intended.
★★★★
I made this today for my birthday celebration and the dough was very stycky. Reading the recipe again I found my error, the strawerrys wasnt dried .
Also I made some changes, use dairy free cream cheese and butter and more strawerrys.
Despite all, the taste was amazing, almost addictive. I cut the dough because they spread too much, glazed them with a homemade syrup and served them like mini cakes.
★★★★★
Hi Sally, can I shape the cookies before chilling?
Hi Eileen, you can certainly try, but the dough is pretty sticky.
Another winner! These were delicious. Thank you Sally.
★★★★★
Hi Sally! Would I be able to make these into the giants sized cookies? Baking at 325 for 20-25 min? Thanks a lot!
Hi Joe, you can certainly make the cookies a bit larger. Bake time will really depend on the size. Hope you enjoy the recipe!
I liked the flavor of these, but I found the dough to be very hard to work with right after mixing. I followed all the measurements exactly (using grams as I’m based in Europe) but it was crazy sticky and thick, could only mix with the mixer but then it just stuck in a big lump to the paddle attachment. Wondering what I could be doing wrong, or should the dough be like this? The only difference between the base of this recipe and the chewy chocolate chip cookies is the cream cheese, and the chewy chocolate chip cookies turn out perfectly for me every time.
Hi Katherine, I’m so sorry you’re having trouble with this recipe. It’s likely the difference in cream cheese that’s causing the problem. American block-style cream cheese (like Philadelphia brand) is hard to come by in other countries–it’s very frustrating for so many people. If your chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe turns out well every time, you could try using that dough and adding the freeze-dried strawberries and white chocolate chunks in place of the chocolate chips. We haven’t tested it that way, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The cookies won’t taste quite as creamy, but I’m sure they’d still be delicious! Please let us know if you try it, and how it turns out.
Amazingly good.
★★★★★
Glad I did a trial run of this recipe because the cookies turned out caky and puffed up, also not a strong enough strawberry flavor. I measured everything in grams and followed all directions, but I was disappointed with the result. Surprising because most Sally’s recipes are great. I won’t try this recipe again given the cost of freeze dried strawberries.
These cookies turned out so good! I’ll be making them again soon! Thank you!
★★★★★
Do you think this recipe would work with brown butter?
Hi CJ, you could try using brown butter here, just be sure to bring it back to a solid form before creaming with the sugars. (You can read more about accounting for moisture loss, too, in this post on brown butter.) Let us know if you give it a try.
I am a chocolate lover and strawberries and chocolate go so well together. What do you think about using semisweet chocolate bits instead of the white chocolate? Have you tried that? By the way, your Triple Chocolate Layer Cake is absolutely out of this world. I have been using a chocolate cake recipe for years that I thought was the best. But your recipe is even better! Thanks
Hi Rhonda, that sounds delicious! Enjoy
These cookies were really good! I added a strawberry glaze which really amped up the strawberry flavor! Will definitely make again.
★★★★
Your recipes are the BEST! When I bake cookies, I turn to you. I made the Strawberries and Cream and they turned out great. What are your thoughts about adding pecans?
Hi Rhonda, pecans would be delicious! Feel free to replace some of the white chocolate with pecans. Keep the total amount of add-ins about the same. Let us know how it goes!
I made these yesterday! Birthday treat for a neighbor. ALL of us loved them!! I found that 2 hours was too long to chill (for me). Difficult to scoop. By the time I was half way done, the dough was perfect. I would chill my next batch about 1-1/2 hours.
★★★★★
How can you roll the cookie dough & still use a 1 1/2 Tbsps. scoop for the same cookie dough. Please advise.
Hi Adunni, this dough is not intended for rolling out with a rolling pin. It’s a drop-style cookie that lends best to using a cookie scoop or Tablespoon to measure and shape the dough. For a strawberry flavored cookie that’s suitable for rolling and using cookie cutters, you can try these raspberry sugar cookies and use freeze dried strawberries instead of freeze dried raspberries. Hope this helps!
This is the best recipe i’ve found so far ! Can i add Vanilla Oreos to make it more “strawberry shortcake” flavor
★★★★★
Couldn’t find freeze dried strawberries, so I used dried strawberries and followed the recipe exactly. The cookies were delicious, and I would definitely make again. Member of our family can’t have chocolate, so we are always looking for yummy ‘non chocolate chip’ recipes. These were a hit
★★★★★
A+! Mine turned a slightly bluish color, I think from dust after chopping the strawberries. Great texture and flavor!
★★★★★
I combined this recipe with the classic chocolate chip cookie bar recipe. So they were strawberry white chocolate cookie bars and the result was AMAZING! Definitely making these again!
Can I substitute baking soda with baking powder? I avoid all cookies because I can always taste baking soda
Hi Sam! It wouldn’t be an even substitute – you can read more about the difference between the two in this post.
I was so excited to try this recipe and followed the directions to a T. My cookies did not spread. They stayed puffed up like drop biscuits. And the cookie itself did not really “brown” while cooking. The bottom of the cookie “burned” before the top had a chance to turn golden.
Hi Leigh, thank you for giving this recipe a try! Usually when cookies don’t spread, there’s too much flour in the dough. How did you measure the flour? Make sure to spoon and level (instead of scooping) to avoid packing in too much flour into your measuring cups – or use a kitchen scale. You can read more about properly measuring baking ingredients in this post.
Made these for valentines, they look really cute and taste great!
★★★★★
I couldn’t find freeze-dried strawberries here so I made these using the strawberries I dried in my dehydrator.
Just divine!
The smell and flavour of strawberry is really strong and they really do taste like cream.
I left out the white chocolate because we’re not fans of it.
Still divine!
15 of the 30 were gone within an hour and they’ve been added to the ‘regular please’ baking list.
They remind me so much of the Strawberry & Cream biscuits my mum used to order from England. She would let me have just one because they were a luxury and took 4 months to get here. She passed away 36 years ago and I’ve never been able to find the brand she loved. So making and tasting these were a skip down memory lane.
Thank you
★★★★★
This recipe is AMAZING! I love strawberries (and freeze dried strawberries are a snacking staple in our house), but it’s brilliant to use them in a cookie, when fresh or frozen strawberries would be far too wet. I don’t particularly enjoy white chocolate BUT I stuck with the recipe as written because a) Sally’s recipes are well tested and I know I can trust them and b) I thought semi sweet or dark chocolate (my preference) would dominate the flavor of the cookies and change the strawberries and cream profile. I’m glad I did, because the white chocolate with the slightly tart, mostly sweet fried strawberries struck the right balance and let the strawberry flavor shine!
2 things I did different: I used white chocolate chips rather than a baking bar. And I scooped cookie dough balls before chilling. This makes it easier for me, and keeps my dough from warming too much. It worked out perfectly on both counts.
I made a double recipe (about 48 big cookies for me) and brought them to a family gathering, on a large tray of these, homemade strawberry marshmallows, and homemade pizzelles. People who normally eat one or two total were eating 4 and 5 of these! They were loved by people with very different tastes (many of whom don’t like white chocolate). Slam dunk recipe, Sally!
★★★★★
These cookies were an absolute success – a big hit both at home and in the office! The acidity from the freeze-dried strawberries brings a bite to complement the sweetness. The batter is a bit more cake-like but not such a cakey cookie.
My husband nicknamed them the “Special K” cookies (the strawberries are his favorite part of the cereal) and the name stuck. He says these are the best flavors I’ve baked yet.
Big hit in the office too – completely gone! They held up well being transported to/from the office and aren’t crumbly/messy.
My only modification was that my cookies were slightly smaller, so my bake time was adjusted accordingly. For better or worse, I used convection bake and rotated the cookies 3/4 of the way through to even the golden edges. The bottoms come out a little crispier initially once cooled on the rack, but when stored together in a bag or airtight container, everything softened.
★★★★★
I made this recipe with a friend in mind whose favorite flavor is vanilla, who loves strawberry shortcake. I haven’t had her taste them yet, but I, a chocolate fiend, LOVES this recipe! Freeze dried strawberries are a revelation, and this cookie recipe has earned its way into my heart. Thanks, Sally!
★★★★★