Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Strawberry shortcake cookies are tender, scone-like cookies dotted with fresh strawberries. The best Springtime cookie, made in just 30 minutes!

Tender, scone-like little cookies, chock full of fresh strawberries may just be my favorite cookie. It’s not that I don’t love a good, chewy flourless chocolate cookie when I’m craving something rich, but when the weather starts to warm, it’s all about the fruit for me!

My love of scones is well-documented (with my lemon scones and my chocolate chip scones), and the reason I love scones so much is the cream in the dough. Cream makes dough flaky and tender. In short, cream does amazing things for baked goods!

A shortcake is a cross between a biscuit and a scone, and it’s the perfect combination, in my not-so-humble dessert-loving opinion. While we trade the mile-high flaky layers of biscuits when we create shortcakes, we want the slightly dense texture of a cookie. And, we lose the crumbly texture of a scone when we add enough sugar to make it a cookie, but we still get the creaminess and fluffiness. 

When fresh strawberries are in season, these strawberry shortcake cookies are the best thing to make! Well, these and my strawberry shortcake bars. And it wouldn't be complete without my strawberry cake for two made in ramekins, of course.

Ingredients for strawberry shortcake cookies:

• 6 ounces fresh strawberries: We're going to wash, hull, and dice the berries finely. See the photos for reference.
• flour: regular all-purpose flour is best here.
• baking powder: baking powder reacts the best with heavy cream since there's no other acidic ingredients in the dough.
• salt: I always bake with fine sea salt.
• sugar: granulated sugar is great for the dough, and for sprinkling on top before baking. Although, I do like coarse sugar for sprinkling on top before baking.
• butter: unsalted butter is best for baking, and we're using it cold here, not room temperature.
• heavy cream: We're making the dough with heavy cream, because the extra fat creates the most tender, fluffy dough.

How to make fresh strawberry cookies:

1. First, measure out 6 ounces of fresh strawberries. Then, rinse, hull and finely dice the berries. You'll have slightly less than 6 ounces of berries after you chop them up, but this recipe calls for you to weigh the berries before chopping them.
2. Second, combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in a medium bowl. Add the cold, diced butter and use a dough blender to work it throughout the dough until it has broken up into very small pieces.
   
3. Add the cream and diced strawberries to the dough, and lightly stir. You can add a small splash of extra cream if you think the dough needs it, but be mindful that the strawberries are wet and they will release their liquid and help the dough bind together.
   
4. Divide the dough into 12 evenly-sized scoops, and place on a baking sheet, evenly spaced. Sprinkle extra coarse sugar on top before baking at 350-degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes. Remove the cookies from the pan to let them cool completely. 
   

If you look closely, you can see the little jammy bits of strawberry on the edges of the cookies. Those are my favorite parts! If you need the absolute real thing with whipped cream, here's my strawberry shortcake recipe for two--just two biscuits, macerated berries and freshly whipped cream.