strawberry shortcake cookies

yes. strawberry shortcake cookies. all of the flavor (and texture!) of strawberry shortcake with the ease of a cookie dough. you are welcome. i just had to sneak in one last  strawberry recipe before the season is over. it didn’t hurt that houston showed up with a pound and a half box of strawberries from work that THEY DIDN’T FINISH!! what is wrong with these people, i do not know. but they did get a batch of these cookies, so maybe they knew what they were doing after all.

i could just dive into this bowl right now. either the bowl above OR the one below.

the butter and cream gave the cookie a real scone or shortbread-like texture.

sprinkle some sanding or coarse sugar on top. i used organic cane sugar. it has a very nice yet subtle crunch and a natural look due to the fact that it is unrefined.

strawberry shortcake cookies (makes about 3 dozen)

adapted from martha stewart

after you assemble the strawberry mixture and it sits while you are combining your dry ingredients, it will accumulate a large amount of liquid. i mean an alarming amount, if you have juicy strawberries like i did. you must drain this off or dough will be way too wet. i also found that refrigerating the dough for 10-15 minutes kept the butter cold enough that the cookies did not spread when they hit the hot oven.

 

12 ounces strawberries, hulled and cut into 1/4 ” dice 

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp coarse salt (i used kosher salt)

3 ounces (6 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2/3 cup heavy cream

sanding or coarse sugar to sprinkle on top

 

preheat oven to 375 degrees. combine strawberries, lemon juice, and 2 tbsp sugar. in a separate large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and remaining 7 tbsp of sugar. cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or rub in with your fingers until butter pieces appear the size of peas (or coarse crumbs, whatever they are!). stir in cream until dough starts to come together, then stir in drained strawberry mixture.

using a small ice cream scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper (believe me, you do not want to skimp on this step or you will have oven-baked fruit dried onto your baking sheets for the rest of eternity). sprinkle with sugar and bake until golden brown, about 24-25 minutes. transfer to a wire rack until cool. these are best eaten immediately and will keep up to a day. but the quality really starts to suffer after that. not that they’ll still be around after 24 hours. trust me.