I am back at it again with my trusty cookie recipe! Can’t be surprised any more, can we? It’s just an old reliable recipe at this point. This time, I took the cookie base from these, and the frosting from these. And then, voila! Strawberry Lemon Cookies.
Strawberry Lemon is an underrated flavor combination, in my opinion. My favorite Milk Bar cake is the strawberry lemon one – it is, quite literally, the perfect cake. But, they haven’t made it their Spring flavor since maybe 2019! Which is a bummer, because I would buy it every year. Instead, they do their Strawberry Shortcake, which is good I guess. But it isn’t magical, like the Strawberry Lemon.
I made a half batch of the frosting, but used the same amount of freeze dried strawberries (sort of be accident), but that’s what I believe some might call a “happy accident,” because then it’s just extra powerful strawberry flavor. I never have any complaints with that.
As a kid, I felt the chocolate vs. vanilla debate was a pretty important one. And it usually hinged around ice cream. But frankly? I am a strawberry person. It took me years to figure it out, but somewhere in high school or college I had my first very good strawberry ice cream, and my eyes were opened. Chocolate ice cream is always either too rich, or a watered-down version of chocolate. Vanilla is a great base, but on its own it’s never phenomenal. But strawberry??? Whether it’s amazingly fresh and hand-crafted, or whether it’s synthetic, I’m going to like it. It needs to be included in the discourse.
By synthetic, I mean like these strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. They used to offer them at school on Fridays in elementary school, and they were always the greatest ones. I may have to bake something based off of those in the near future. They are a treasure.
But for now, these strawberry lemon cookies! The lemon and strawberry are both strong – it’s simple and it works! Could not improve on them.
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PinIngredients
For the Lemon Cookies:
- 1 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp glucose
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cups flour
- 1/3 cups milk powder
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
For the Strawberry Frosting:
- 1 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1.5 to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
- 1 oz bag of freeze dried strawberries
- 1 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
Make the sugar cookies:
- Measure out your sugar into a small bowl, and zest the lemon into it. Massage the lemon zest into the sugar until it is well incorporated and smells strongly of lemon. This step is crucial!
- Combine the butter, lemon sugar, and glucose in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides, add in the egg and beat for 7-8 minutes.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and add in the flour, milk powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Mix just until the dough comes together – no longer than 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Using a 2 3/4 oz. ice cream scoop (1/3 cup measure) portion out the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet – you should get 15-20 large balls of dough. Pat the tops of the cookie balls flat – wrap the sheet pan tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or up to 1 week. Do not bake the cookies from room temp – they will not bake properly!
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the chilled dough at least 4 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake for 18 minutes – the cookies will puff, crackle and spread. The cookies should look lightly browned on the edges (golden brown on the bottom) – the centers will show just the beginning signs of color. If they haven’t reached that color yet, leave them in a for an extra minute or two. Cool the cookies completely on the sheet pans before frosting.
Make the frosting:
- Pulverize your freeze dried strawberries in a food processor until they are a dust, with no big chunks. You can run it through a fine mesh sieve to make the frosting come out smoother, if desired, but it’s not necessary.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until soft, about 1 minute.
- Add 1.5 cups of the confectioners’ sugar, the salt, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until the sugar is well incorporated.
- Add your freeze dried strawberries, another ½ cup sugar and the cream. Add more sugar as needed to thicken the frosting. Beat on medium speed until the frosting is smooth and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
- Frost cookies generously. Fill a bowl with sprinkles. Place cookies frosting side down into bowl of sprinkles and press firmly to coat.