These strawberry shortbread cookies are delicately flavored, meltingly soft and with a pretty pink color. Perfect for Valentine's Day or any occasion!
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I'll be honest, I've never been one to be all that bothered by Valentine's day. It can somehow all too easily feel that bit forced or awkward, and all too easily overly commercial. Still, I am all for any excuse to enjoy some tasty food, and over the years have shared some fun pink foods like beet gnocchi and strawberry souffle that are deliciously good, too.
These pretty pink cookies are another one that are a great to use the excuse of Valentine's Day to make them, though of course you don't need to. They come together with just a few ingredients, are soft and tasty, and are well worth making any time you like.
Making strawberry flavored cookies
These are based on a classic Scottish shortbread, as I have used before to make filled shortbread cookies. Shortbread are simple buttery cookies (sweet biscuits), being essentially just butter, sugar and flour. I, like many, often add a little corn starch/corn flour to help them be extra tender. But that's it - there's no egg or raising agent in them. "Short" is an old term for crumbly or tender, and it's exactly what they are, in the best way possible.
This strawberry version has added freeze-dried strawberries in them, ground up into a fine powder. It gives a lovely delicate flavor and pink color without adding extra moisture. Plus, unlike fresh strawberries, they're available year round.
It took me a couple goes to get the amount of strawberry about right. First I didn't have quite enough strawberry in there - they were a lovely pale pink but I didn't think you got enough flavor.
What I have here has that bit more flavor and more pink, though it does become less after cooking. The only slight drawbacks are the strawberry powder makes the cookies ever so slightly more chewy, and they do seem to become slightly brown over time. But while these maybe make them a little less shortbread-like, I think they're compromises worth settling for.
Tips for making strawberry shortbread
As with shortbread in general, these are easy to make with just a small list of ingredients. But you do want to make sure you handle the dough relatively lightly to ensure that meltingly soft texture.
Make sure you use freshly-opened freeze dried strawberries, as they do get more chewy over time and won't crush well. You start by making them into a fine powder - you can either whizz them in a blender or use a pestle and mortal. Both are pretty quick, so as you prefer.
Then, mix together the sugar and butter - it should be well combined but not creamed. Add the ground strawberries, flour and cornstarch/cornflour and bring the dough together.
Take care not to over-mix. Often using your hands is easiest to use the little bit of warmth to help the mixture stick - it can be crumbly, but do your best not to work it too much.
Roll the mixture out on a lightly floured surface - don't be tempted to add more flour if it's sticky, just gently flour the surface and rolling pin. Cut out whatever shape you like. If you prefer, you can form the dough into a log, chill it then slice into rounds instead. Whichever method, try to smooth out cracks and if they've become soft (eg if your room or hands are warm), chill them a minute or two before baking to help stop them spreading too much.
Then, it's time to bake! Watch closely and don't over-bake for the best texture and flavor. They should only be getting just a hint of brown at most, and will still be soft when you take them out but they firm up soon.
Decorating the cookies
The flavor of the strawberries is, as I say, subtle, but the frosting/icing added on top helps to add that little bit more vibrancy to them. Or arguably, it's more of a glaze, but either way it's easy, pretty and makes them feel that little bit more special, so I highly recommend!
It's a very simple confectioner's sugar (icing sugar) and liquid icing, with some added strawberry powder for color and flavor. I use lemon juice as the liquid as it both adds a nice brightness and pairs well with the strawberry. Plus, it's way more interesting than using water or milk. Just whisk everything together into a smooth paste.
You can decorate however you choose - a simple zigzag as I did here, heart shapes or something else, as the mood takes you. However you decorate, make sure the cookies are completely cooled before you add the frosting or it will just run off. Then leave it to firm up before you stack them in any way.
I used a piping bag, but if you don't have one you can use a freezer bag and snip a tiny bit off the corner to act as your piping hole and then just press the icing towards that corner, keeping air out of your bag.
These cookies will keep well for a couple days in an airtight container at room temperature. They will soften a little, but will still be really tasty.
If you enjoy shortbread-style cookies, why not also try my chocolate orange shortbread cookies or my cranberry jam filled shortbread. These pecan shortbread sound tasty, too.
Even if you are not big in to Valentine's day, these strawberry shortbread cookies are so wonderfully delicious, you'll fall in love with them. Buttery soft, just sweet enough and with a subtle strawberry flavor. The frosting helps make them shine even more. They certainly won a few hearts in our household, so do give them a try and enjoy!
Try these other tasty shortbread-like cookies:
- Meyer lemon cookies
- Alfajores (dulce de leche sandwich cookies)
- Plus get more snack recipes, both sweet and savory, in the archives.
Strawberry shortbread cookies
Ingredients
- ½ oz freeze dried strawberries
- 4 oz unsalted butter (4 oz is 1 stick)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour plain flour
- 2 tablespoon corn starch cornflour
For the frosting/icing
- ½ cup confectioner's sugar icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon freeze dried strawberries leftover from above
- ½ tablespoon lemon juice or a little more, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Either use a small blender or pestle and mortar to crush the freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder.
- Mix together the butter and sugar so well combined but don't cream them to a glossy mix. Measure 3 tablespoon (45ml, for one quantity - scale if you increase/decrease) of the strawberry powder and add this to the butter mixture along with the flour and corn starch/cornflour.
- Bring the dough together into a ball then roll out on a surface floured with corn starch to approximately ¼ inch (½cm) thick (though a little thinner or thicker is also fine).
- Cut out small circles and place on a lined baking sheet/tray, with some space between them - they hardly spread, but a little space is helpful for when you remove them.
- Bake for approx 8 - 10 minutes until just starting to color very slightly around the edges - they will still be slightly soft to touch but will look dry.
- Let them cool a couple minutes before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cook completely. Don't add the frosting/icing until cooled.
For the frosting/icing
- Place the confectioner's sugar in a small bowl. Add the dried strawberry powder, which should be most if not all of what you had leftover from the cookies, along with the lemon juice and mix into a smooth paste. It should be gently flowing but not too liquid. If needed, add a little more lemon juice to thin it, or sugar if too thin.
- Transfer to a piping bag with a fine nozzle or to a small plastic bag and snip off the corner. Decorate the shortbread eg in a zigzag pattern as here.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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This post was first shared in January 2015 and has been updated, adapting the recipe slightly and with new photos and additional information.
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