Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Buttercream
These Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Buttercream are made without fresh strawberries or food dye! The secret ingredient? Freeze-dried strawberries! These tasty cookies give a strawberry cereal vibe and are delicious with a glass of cold milk.
If you are digging this recipe, you should also try my Strawberry Whipped Cream–also made with freeze-dried strawberries!
Strawberries make lovely desserts. Whether layered between freshly whipped cream and biscuits for a strawberry shortcake, baked in a pie, or simply sliced and served over vanilla ice cream, perfectly fresh and ripe strawberries are hard to beat.
Unfortunately we don’t always have the luxury of accessing fresh strawberries! Though where I live they are sold year-around, they are only delicious for a short season. The rest of the time, they are not usually worth the cost.
What to do? Freeze-dried strawberries of course!
While you won’t be able to make those classic desserts with freeze-dried berries (or at least make them in the same way), the light and crunchy berries have a charm all their own. They have been popular for years in cereals and now it’s easy to buy a bag (just the berries, please!) at the grocery store.
You can find freeze-dried strawberries near the dried fruit section of your grocery. They have been specially processed to remove moisture. They are light, crisp, sweet, and full of strawberry flavor!
You can snack on them, use them in trail mix, add them to cereal (naturally), and yes, even bake with them.
This recipe for strawberry cookies with strawberry buttercream uses exclusively freeze-dried strawberries for a treat you can make any time. The finished product has a cereal vibe reminiscent of favorite strawberry cereals and the pretty pink frosting makes a statement for parties or holidays (Valentine’s Day perhaps?).
What You’ll Love About These Strawberry Cookies
- You won’t need to fuss with fresh or frozen strawberries for this recipe. Just grab a bag of freeze-dried strawberries (next to the dried fruit in your grocery store).
- The cookies are easily made ahead if you wish to prepare them for party or event.
- And how about that gorgeous pink color? Achieved with only strawberries–absolutely no food dye here!
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How I Created This Recipe
Recipes by a Real Person in a Real Kitchen
In the age of AI-generated content, I like to share how I’ve created and tested my recipes. My recipes have been imagined, hypothesized, taste-tested, and refined by a real human (me!). I only publish recipes I think are awesome.
This was one of the first recipes I had ready for this new website! Fast-forward over a year later and I still hadn’t posted it because I needed to double-check a few quantities.
I recently re-tested and photographed it and now here it is. I hope you love it!
If You Plan to Pipe the Buttercream…
Because this strawberry buttercream is made with freeze-dried berries, it is not the best choice for piping. But it can be done! If you use a food processor to break down the berries to powder (be prepared for a lot of berry dust!), that will give you a smooth pipe-able frosting.
If you break down the berries with a rolling pin and plastic ziptop bag (as I suggest in the recipe), you will likely have plenty of chunks that seem tiny until you try to force the frosting out a piping nozzle. I suggest grabbing a large round or open star tip (such as a 2A) used without coupler to avoid issues.
If you have trouble piping the buttercream, simply use an offset spatula to swirl the frosting into a thick topping on the cookies. Add a little sprinkle of crushed freeze-dried berries to one side of the cookie for a pretty finish.
Ingredients in Strawberry Cookies & Buttercream
A few notes on some of the ingredients used in the cookies:
Freeze-Dried Strawberries – This ingredient is the key to the whole recipe! I grab mine at Aldi (great price and they taste perfect). Double check the weight of the package you buy to ensure you have enough for the cookies and the frosting.
Unsalted Butter: I always use unsalted American butter in my recipes. I shop at Costco the most frequently so I often go with their store-brand of butter for baking. Don’t sub in salted butter.
Granulated Sugar – Used in the cookies.
All-Purpose Flour – I use all-purpose flour in my baking. It’s very very important to measure your flour correctly. Never pack flour into a measuring cup. Use a scale for best results.
Other Ingredients – The other ingredients you’ll need on hand are: an egg, vanilla extract, baking powder, salt, powdered sugar, and heavy cream or milk.
A Quick Recipe Overview
Here’s a summary of how this recipe is made. Find the complete ingredients list and full instructions within the printable recipe card below!
Both components start with crushing the berries with a rolling pin and a ziptop bag. If you have some leftover berries you can use them to garnish the cookies as shown in the photos throughout this post.
Making the Strawberry Cookies
The cookies use melted and cooled butter–so no creaming necessary! You’ll whisk in the sugar and then the egg and vanilla. Next up, add the dry ingredients and then finally fold in the crushed berries.
Dough will chill for two hours so it does not spread too much while baking.
The cookies are then scooped, gently flattened just a bit, and then baked.
Once cookies are cool, you will prepare the frosting.
Making the Strawberry Buttercream:
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and then gradually add in powdered sugar.
Add salt and then the heavy cream in small increments. Add enough heavy cream so the buttercream forms medium or stiff peaks and is easily swirled with a knife. This will be about 3-4 tablespoons of milk or cream. Fold in the strawberries and then frost cookies as desired.
If you want to pipe the frosting, you’ll want a large piping tip like a 2A (large open star). Regular size piping tips used with a coupler will be too small for the particles of berries and you’ll encounter frosting jams–frustrating!
How to Make Ahead: Strawberry Buttercream
If you need to make this frosting ahead of time, store it in the fridge. Plan to remove from the fridge about 60 minutes in advance of using (to allow time for it to soften). Beat with an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer) until soft and fluffy and then pipe as desired.
How to Store and Freeze
Store the cooled unfrosted cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days. Or, freeze in freezer safe packaging for 1-2 months. The frosting can be stored in the fridge for up to five days. Frosted cookies should be refrigerated (up to five days) or frozen (up to 1-2 months). The cookies will soften slightly after being frosted.
More Recipes to Try
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Heart Cookies
- Easy Marbled Heart Sugar Cookies
- Crumbl Strawberry Pretzel Pie Cookies
- Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies (Crumbl Style)
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Strawberry Cookies with Strawberry Buttercream
Ingredients
Strawberry Cookies:
- 1 ounce freeze-dried strawberries (about 1 full cup)
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled for 10 minutes
- ¾ cup granulated sugar 5.25 ounces
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cups flour 6.65 ounces all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Strawberry Buttercream:
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar 10 ounces
- ½ ounce freeze-dried strawberries (about ½ cup)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
- ⅛ teaspoon salt regular table salt
Instructions
Strawberry Cookies:
- Pour 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries into a ziptop bag and close. Pound or roll with a rolling pin until the berries are crushed into small pieces (not powder). Leave some larger pieces if you'd like. Set berries aside.
- Add granulated sugar to melted and cooled butter and whisk until the mixture is totally combined. It should be thick and shiny. Whisk in egg and vanilla until combined and smooth, about 60 seconds.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt into the bowl with the other ingredients and use a spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Dough will be very soft. Add freeze-dried strawberries and gently fold in until evenly distributed.
- Chill dough for a minimum of 2 hours or up to overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Use a #40 (1.5 tablespoon) scoop to scoop the cookie dough and arrange 2” apart on baking sheet. Flatten scoops slightly with fingertips or the back of a measuring cup.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 10-11 minutes, or until cookies have puffed, spread, and appear just slightly golden on the edges and set in the centers. Don’t overbake. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Strawberry Buttercream:
- Using a ziptop bag and rolling (as described above), crush 1/2 cup of freeze-dried strawberries very fine and set aside. Beat butter with hand mixer until smooth and gradually add the powdered sugar in ½ cup increments (incorporating each addition fully before adding the next).
- Add the salt. Use the beaters on medium speed as you add the heavy cream one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached (you'll use about 3-4 tablespoons of cream or milk). Turn the mixer speed up to medium and beat another minute or two until fluffy.
- Gently fold in the crushed strawberries with a spatula. Frost cooled cookies as desired.
