Tessa's Recipe Rundown
Taste: Like strawberries and cream in cookie form.
Texture: Ultra-soft and perfectly chewy.
Ease: Super easy – these cookies are ready to enjoy in under an hour!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Naturally pink, bursting with real strawberry flavor, and perfect for any strawberry lover in your life.
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Calling all berry lovers! These stunning Strawberry Swirl Cookies are for you.
These cookies were inspired by my super-popular Soft & Chewy Sugar Cookies – but with a fresh, fruity twist! Half the dough is infused with freeze-dried strawberries for an incredible strawberry flavor without any artificial extracts or excess moisture.
The result? A soft, chewy, fruity cookie with a gorgeous naturally vibrant swirl.
Make these pretty cookies alongside my Baked Strawberry Lemon Doughnuts for Mother’s Day brunch or with my gooey Raspberry Brownies for Valentine’s Day. They’re also perfect for a baby shower!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Strawberry Swirl Cookies
My #1 Tip: Measure Your Flour Correctly!
Use a digital kitchen scale to measure your flour. Measuring with cups makes it SO easy to accidentally overmeasure flour, resulting in a crumbly dough and dry, hard, bland cookies.
If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon-and-level method to measure your flour.
Butter Temperature
Make sure your butter is at a cool room temperature – about 67°F. The butter should give slightly when pressed with your finger but still hold its shape. If your butter is too warm, you may end up with sad cookie puddles.
The Egg + Egg Yolk
Don’t skip the additional egg yolk! It adds richness and chewiness. If you skip the extra yolk, your sugar cookies won’t be as soft and chewy.
Also, be sure to use large eggs, about 56 grams in shell. Using medium or extra-large eggs will change the consistency of the cookies.
The Freeze-Dried Strawberries
Freeze-dried fruits contain no excess moisture and pack a very concentrated punch of flavor. You’ll need 1.4 ounces (40 grams) of freeze-dried strawberries, so be sure to buy a big enough package or two smaller packages. Find freeze-dried strawberries at Target, Trader Joe’s, or online here.
The easiest way to crush the berries finely is using a coffee grinder, small food processor, or small blender. Alternatively, you can place the strawberries in a zip-top bag and crush them with a mallet or similar object.
If crushing by hand, or if large chunks remain in your crushed strawberries, I recommend sifting through a fine mesh strainer before adding them to the dough for the smoothest results.
Can I Use Dried, Fresh, or Frozen Strawberries?
No, these cookies were created to use finely ground freeze-dried strawberries. Substituting fresh, frozen, or dried strawberries will add too much moisture to the cookie dough, preventing you from shaping into swirls.
How to Shape Swirled Sugar Cookies
1. Using a small 1-tablespoon cookie scoop, portion the plain dough into balls. Repeat with the strawberry dough.
2. Shape each ball into about a 5-inch log, tapering the ends slightly.
3. Gently press one plain log and one strawberry log together.
4. Roll them into a flat spiral shape.
4. Roll the spiral into a ball, keeping the spiral on top.
Note: If you notice that the dough is becoming too soft or sticky to handle, place it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm back up before proceeding.
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Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (318 grams) all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar, plus 1/4 cup (50 grams) for rolling
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1.4 ounces (40 grams) freeze-dried strawberries**, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed to beat the butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and beat until combined, scraping the bowl down as needed. Slowly beat in the flour mixture.
- Remove just over half of the dough (about 435 grams) to a large mixing bowl and set aside. To the dough in the electric mixing bowl, add the crushed freeze-dried strawberries and mix on low speed until combined.
- Using a small 1-tablespoon cookie scoop, portion out the plain dough and roll it into balls. Shape each ball into a 5-inch log, tapering the ends slightly. Repeat with the strawberry dough. Press one plain log and one strawberry log together side by side, then gently roll them into a flat spiral shape. Next, roll the spiral into a ball, keeping the spiral on top. Repeat with the remaining dough. If the dough gets too soft or sticky to handle at any point, refrigerate it for about 15 minutes until firmed.
- Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a shallow dish. Roll each ball of dough in sugar to coat evenly. Place the shaped dough on the prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart, and flatten slightly with your palm.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are set and just beginning to brown at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. To keep them soft, add a small tortilla to the container.
Notes
Photos by Joanie Simon.
Strawberry Sugar Cookie FAQs
We haven’t tried that ourselves, but it should work just fine. Feel free to experiment with freeze-dried raspberries, blueberries, or any other freeze-dried fruit, and let us know how it goes in the comments below!
Sure! Simply double all ingredients to yield approximately 52 cookies, or halve all ingredients and use a hand held mixer instead of a stand mixer to make about 13 cookies.
Store completely cooled cookies inside an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Store with a tortilla to keep the cookies soft longer.
These cookies freeze beautifully for short-term storage. Once completely cooled, layer them between sheets of parchment in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 weeks. Thaw to room temperature before enjoying.
To freeze the cookie dough, prepare the dough and shape as directed below. Place the shaped balls of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for an hour or two, or until solid. Transfer the solid cookie dough balls to an airtight container and freeze for up to one month.
To bake, thaw the cookie dough balls overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature for about 30-60 minutes, roll in sugar, and bake as directed above.
I tried these cookies and they were delicious! Is there any way I could double this recipe to make more?
So happy you loved them! Yes, this recipe can easily be doubled, for about 52 cookies 🙂
I’m sure these are wonderful as is—your cookies always are. Just wondering if there is any way to work chocolate into the mix. Maybe in the white section? Or a third rope?
Thanks, Elese! 🙂 We haven’t tried adding chocolate to this recipe, but it definitely sounds delicious. Are you thinking cocoa powder or chocolate chips? Cocoa powder would take a little experimenting since you’d need to reduce some of the flour to keep the dough balanced. Chocolate chips would probably be easier to incorporate. You could try adding about 1/4–1/2 cup to either dough. Let us know if you give it a try!
Hello, would I be able to make this recipe using freeze dried raspberries, or a combo of raspberries and strawberries, and adding lemon juice or zest to the vanilla dough for a pink lemonade vibe?
Ooo that sounds delicious! We haven’t tried that, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let us know how it turns out!
I made these after reading a book with a strawberry festival. Texture is a soft cookie, deliciously sweet. Great with a hot cuppa. I can appreciate rolling each one onto a swirl; time consuming as strawberry dough is a little stiffer and often cracked for me. Have you tried rolling out 2rectangles and rolling together (much like a sushi roll) and then slicing? Potentially creating a smaller cookie too (my cookies were runaway giants). But delicious and easy to share.
Thanks for the feedback, Corry! We haven’t tried rolling out the dough in that way, but let us know if you try it with your next batch! We’re so happy you love the recipe 🙂
Super easy, very very good! I didn’t love rolling them into a log, so I smushed them together then rolled them into a large ball and flattened them. Not as pretty, but just as tasty! Excellent for Mother’s Day!
I made these for a baby shower. (They’re expecting a sweet little girl soon!) I was short on time, so i made the 2 types of dough, wrapped and chilled them overnight, then continued the next day. Though the forming of each cookie was a little tedious, the recipe itself was simple and they turned out so so cute! I liked the flavor and chewiness of these cookies. Thank you for the recipe!
My family really liked these cookies. I wasn’t sure how string the strawberry flavor would be and was pleasantly surprised as how well it came through. The chewy texture was lovely too. They are definitely a labor of love, and the swirls are somewhat challenging to maintain when forming the cookies into balls so I ended up squishing more than rolling some of them. I think it would be interesting to try other fruits too.
I appreciate your precise directions! These are delicious and unique! Thank you 😊
Thank you for your kind feedback, June! So happy you loved them 🙂
My husband loves them and said they’re pretty cute!For some reason ,it won’t let me load the pictures.
These were a big hit! My family loved them, I will definitely be making these again. So yummy and perfectly chewy.
Your cookie looks so pretty, Bethany! Happy to hear they were such a hit 🙂