Soft-baked sugar cookies topped with a vibrant and flavorful strawberry frosting. The perfect spring and summer cookie that is not only beautiful, but delicious, too.
Get ready to sink your teeth into these thick and soft cookies. No fake colors or flavors, real strawberries in every bite.
We took our Frosted Sugar Cookies and topped them with our Strawberry Buttercream Frosting making this a mashup of two of our favorite recipes. You’ll love these tasty sugar cookies!
Looking for another amazing cookie recipe? Try our Raspberry Crumble Cookies, too!
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These cookies are
- Soft and tender. They practically melt in your mouth!
- Flavored with vanilla and a touch of almond extract (our secret ingredient).
- Topped with real strawberry frosting.
- Better than store bought.
- Easy! The cookie dough comes together in minutes, no chill time required.
Recipe overview
Cookies:
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add eggs, sour cream, and extracts.
- Combine dry ingredients in another bowl.
- Add dry to the wet ingredients.
- Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 5 minutes.
- Scoop into balls and bake.
Frosting:
Start by grinding the freeze dried strawberries into powder. Pour it through a fine mesh sieve and discard the seeds. You will be left with a fine pinkish/red powder that will add tons of strawberry flavor to the frosting.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter until smooth, add powdered sugar and beat until combined.
Add the freeze dried strawberry powder, jam, vanilla, and milk/strawberry puree.
Beat until smooth and combined.
Ingredient spotlight: freeze dried strawberries
Freeze dried strawberries are strawberries that have low water content and are dried out and crispy. They can be found on the dried fruit aisle (I get mine at Target or Whole Foods). Note: they are not dried strawberries which are soft and chewy (like a raisin).
Because they are dry they allow us to add a deep, more intense strawberry flavor without adding too much moisture which could make the frosting thin and runny.
Pulse the freeze dried strawberries in a food processor or blender until ground into a fine powder.
Serving and storage
Serving: These cookies are best served at cool room temperature.
Storage: Store cookies tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let sit at cool room temperature for 30 minutes or so before serving.
More strawberry recipes
Recipe
Soft Sugar Cookies with Strawberry Frosting
Ingredients
Cookies:
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
- 1 ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¼ cup full fat sour cream
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Frosting:
- ¾ cup freeze dried strawberries
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened to cool room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar, plus more if needed
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 generous tablespoon strawberry jam
- 2 tablespoons milk OR 5-8 strawberries*, plus more, if needed
- optional garnishes: sliced strawberries or sprinkle with freeze dried strawberry powder
Instructions
Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (this helps the cookies from spreading).
- Using a hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar for 2 minutes, until light and creamy. Add extracts, egg, egg yolk, and sour cream and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. The mixture might look a little curdled, that’s ok.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
- Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Scoop the dough into 2-tablespoon balls (briefly rolling them in your hands, if necessary, to make the dough balls smooth). Place the dough balls a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes (see note), until the edges are set and the center is still slightly underdone. The cookies should still be light in color, not brown. Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool completely; the cookies will firm up once cool.
Frosting:
- In a small food processor, blend freeze dried strawberries until they turn into powder. Pour the powder into a fine mesh sieve, discarding the solids and seeds, keeping the fine powder that came through the sieve. Set the powder aside, you should have a scant ¼ cup.
- With a hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl and the beater as necessary. Add the powdered sugar, ½ a cup at a time, beating until combined.
- Add freeze dried strawberry powder, vanilla extract, jam, and either 2 tablespoons of milk OR 2 tablespoons strawberry puree. Beat on medium speed until fully combined, being sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl and beater as needed. If necessary, adjust the consistency by adding more powdered sugar to thicken, or more milk or strawberry puree to thin it out.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Eddie Cook says
I am soooo making these
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Celebrating Sweets says
Do it! They’re delicious!
Kelley says
These look amazing! I can’t wait to try them with my kiddos!
Celebrating Sweets says
Thanks, Kelley. 🙂
Nik says
How much is a stick of butter?
Celebrating Sweets says
It’s 1/2 cup.
Humeyra says
Can I use frozen strawberries instead of fresh?
Celebrating Sweets says
Yes, that should work just fine. I would suggest thawing and draining the frozen strawberries first. You also might need a little extra powdered sugar to account for the extra moisture in the frozen strawberries.
Emily says
Should these stay out at room temperature?
Celebrating Sweets says
I put them in the fridge and bring them to room temp before serving.
Rose says
Perfect for using spring strawberries.
Cathy Kratka says
Wonderful cookie consistency & flavor, not so lucky with my strawberry frosting. The flavor was fabulous but to runny, tried more powdered sugar and more, tried to refrigerate but nothing seemed to help it thicken. Any ideas where I might have gone wrong? Luckily I had also made a batch of Chocolate frosting and saved the day.
Celebrating Sweets says
Hi, Cathy. Yes, this frosting is bit tricky. If your strawberries are really juicy, and have too much moisture they will thin out the frosting quite a bit. You would need to keep adding powdered sugar to thicken. Sorry that the frosting didn’t work out for you. The chocolate frosting was a great idea!
Cathy Kratka says
Thank you for responding, I will definitely be making them again.
Everyone loved them. ?
Sherlie Magaret says
What is the purpose of using just an egg white with the whole egg? I noticed you did that in your vanilla cake recipe also. I don’t like to waste parts of eggs like that.
Celebrating Sweets says
Hi, Sherlie. Sometimes I want the properties of the egg (binding, leavening), but I do not want/need the color or richness from the yolk. Also, having more egg yolks than necessary can cause some baked goods to taste “eggy”. In my vanilla cake or these sugar cookies I like to keep the end result more light white than yellow, so the extra white(s) help me achieve that. You can always use the yolks in another recipe, like this pudding: https://celebratingsweets.com/homemade-vanilla-pudding/ Thanks for stopping by!
Andréa says
I made these cookies for Super Bowl Sunday. They were a hit! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Allison says
Fantastic! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Taylor says
We LOVED these cookies! Perfectly soft and fluffy, just how my mom made them! That strawberry frosting tasted delicious on top and will be my new go to!
Allison says
I’m so glad! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂