Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

7 Ingredients | 50 Minutes | Nothing screams “summer cookies” like these simple, fluffy and fresh strawberry shortcake cookies. Keep them light or add a fluffy cream cheese filling to take them to the next level.

The post contains helpful tips and tricks to make sure you’re successful in your first attempt. But if you’re in a rush, please use the link above to jump to the recipe card at the end!

If you stopped to ask, “What can I use strawberries for” or my personal favorite, “what can I make with old strawberries?” this is the post for you. I’ve always loved old school strawberry cookies (you know, the kind you made with a box mix) and strawberry shortcake. Why not put those two together to create the best strawberry dessert?

I was inspired by Delish but wanted a lighter version and a better way to fill the cookie if I chose to use cream cheese. After several tweaks, here we are – with a delicious cookie recipe. Just look at the fluffiness!

Jump to:

• 📋 Ingredients
• 🍓 How do you make strawberry cookies from scratch?
• 🧁Fillings
• 📖 Top Tips
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

📋 Ingredients

These cookies use just nine simple ingredients (not counting the optional filling). The ingredients include all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt (salt is critical to activate the baking powder), granulated and brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, lemon juice and strawberries.

Picking the right strawberries

Skip strawberries that are visibly moldy or grossly misshapen (or smell bad). If your strawberries look a bit bruised few days after you buy them, chop off those parts. The Environmental Working Group reported that strawberries contain the most pesticides of any fruit or vegetable, so when possible, please try to buy organic to avoid residues.

Storing and cleaning strawberries

Store your strawberries in the fridge until it’s time to eat them. Wash them first under running water thoroughly before you consume them. Don’t put washed strawberries back into the fridge though – this can cause them to go bad soon. If you sliced an extra strawberry or two while making this recipe, make sure to eat them within two hours. Don’t store those in the fridge more than two days!

Making a vegan version of this cookie

To make a vegan “basic” cookie, use vegan butter (to maintain the same fluffy texture) or vegetable oil (slightly less fluffy texture) instead of butter. Swap the egg with flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 2.5 tbsp of water).

🍓 How do you make strawberry cookies from scratch?

This recipe is inspired by Otis Spunkmeyer’s strawberry shortcake cookies (loved them when I lived in the Bay Area). That version has white chocolate and cranberries in it. Mine is a lot simpler and meant to really highlight the deliciousness of the strawberries in just three steps.

First, chop up the strawberries and soak them in lemon juice and sugar

Soaking strawberries in lemon and sugar brings out both the sweet and tart components in the fruit. This makes them a perfect complement to the sweet and fluffy cookies! It also helps keep the strawberries fresh for longer. I typically strain the strawberries after soaking for 10 minutes, and strain again before adding to the dough. You can save the strained liquid too! Just add it to cream cheese for a strawberry-flavored filling!

In the meantime, prepare the dry and wet ingredients

Mix the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt and sift them together. Cream butter with both sugars, and add eggs and vanilla extract to make a smooth mix. Then, combine with the dry ingredients to make a flaky dough

Finally, fold in strawberries, shape cookies and bake to perfection

Drain strawberries, fold gently into the dough. Then, scoop out medium sized balls and bake them, spaced about 2″ apart on a large tray at 350F. For a decadent cookie, you can add strawberry jam or cream cheese filling (see below for notes)

🧁Fillings

The strawberry shortcake cookies, without any fillings, are already absolutely delicious. They are also a tad lighter than the ones with filling.

But occasionally we want a more decadent cookie, and I know that feeling. So if you want a “filled” cookie, you have two options. You can either use a strawberry jam or a cream cheese filling.

Strawberry jam filling: remove the edges, and chop up 1 lb of strawberries. Add this to a small saucepan, along with 1.5 cups of granulated sugar. Bring to a boil, then add 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice. Continue boiling for 15 minutes, stirring to make sure they don’t stick to the bottom or burn.

Portion the cookie dough into 12 equal sized “dough balls” and then flatten them. Use your thumb to create an indent in the center of each cookie. Add a teaspoon of the jam to the thumbprint area. Bake, enjoy!

Cream cheese filling: Cream together 4 oz of soft cream cheese with 2 tbsp of powdered sugar. As soon as you’re done creating the filling, portion them into 12 teaspoon sized dollops on a baking sheet. Throw this in the freezer while you prepare the dough (~10 minutes). Then, you can make a simple thumbprint cookie for an easy fix, or you can stuff the cookie.

I’ll warn before you start. “Stuffing” the cookie is a bit messy and takes a while, so if you want a quick, clean, but delicious method, the thumbprint method is the way to go. But hey, if you’re up for an adventure, you won’t regret stuffing the cookie! I was inspired by Sally’s Baking Addiction (specifically, her red velvet cookies) to freeze the filling before stuffing the cookie. Okay, here goes.

Take two small portions of cookie dough (small cookie scoop or about a tablespoon of dough each). Flatten one of them a bit. Take a frozen cream cheese filling ball, and place it in the center of the cookie dough. Cover with the other piece of cookie dough and roll into a nice smooth ball. The key is to do this as quickly as possible. The heat from your hand could start melting the cream cheese, and then it’s a mess. Delicious, but still a mess.

Ideally, you want the filling to be cool as it goes into the oven. So, consider popping the finished cookies in the fridge for a few minutes before you pop them into the oven.

📖 Top Tips

Avoiding flat cookies

Make sure you don’t mix the butter and flour too much. You ideally want a crumbly texture that holds together when pressed. You also want to make sure to avoid excess moisture as much as possible. So, drain strawberries right before you fold them into the dough.

Preventing sliced strawberries from sinking

Coating strawberries with a pinch of flour before adding it to the cookie dough will prevent them from dropping to the bottom of each cookie

Using frozen strawberries

Strawberries are in season as I am writing this recipe, but if you’re not able to get your hands on fresh strawberries, don’t despair. Frozen ones work in this recipe as well. If you use frozen strawberries, chop them up finely, add lemon juice and pop them in the fridge while they soak (about 10 minutes). Then, strain the strawberries really well, and pop them in the freezer for about 3-5 minutes so they retain their structure and don’t add excess water.

Using strawberry cake mix

If you’re not able to find flour, you can use strawberry cake mix in a pinch. Just replace everything except the folded in strawberries with a box of cake mix, 2 eggs and 1/3 cup of butter instead. Then fold in the strawberries into that dough. Note that the cookies will be a tad flatter than the recipe below.

Storing these cookies

I suggest storing these cookies in the fridge in an airtight container. This will make sure they stay fresh for longer, maintain the fluffiness and keep the strawberries as fresh as possible. Try to finish them off within a day or two when possible! I mean, just look at them below.

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and tag #urbanfarmie on Instagram or @urbanfarmie on Pinterest!

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📖 Recipe

If you like these delicious, strawberry shortcake cookies, don’t forget to check out some of my other simple desserts: