Buttery soft strawberry shortbread topped with a lemon glaze and sprinkled with some extra freeze-dried strawberries—AKA the perfect summer cookie!
This was in partnership with my buddies over at Better Booch. I was challenged to craft a recipe inspired by the flavors in their new “Strawberry Lemonade” kombucha flavor and this is what I came up with!
This post is sponsored by Better Booch.
Some Materials You’ll Need:
- Various mixing bowls
- Measuring cups/spoons
- Whisk/Spatula
- Plastic wrap
- Rolling pin
- Large baking sheet
- Parchment paper
Making and Chilling the Strawberry Shortbread Dough
The dough for this strawberry shortbread is honestly pretty straight-forward! Just make sure to not skip the bits where I have you scrape down the mixing bowl. This is just to make sure all of your ingredients are evenly incorporated with each other. I love seeing all the little specs of freeze-dried strawberries in the dough too!
As with most shortbread, you do need to chill it a bit before rolling out. It’s quite a soft dough, so the chilling will firm it up enough to roll out much more easily and help the cookies to hold their shape during the bake.
Which is why you don’t want to skip the second chilling step right before the bake! This will help contain any spread and give you a more uniform look!
Rolling Out The Shortbread
Shortbread can be tricky to roll out, but I find the easiest method is between two pieces of parchment paper! Place on large sheet on your work surface, sprinkle or sift a bit of flour on top, place your disc of strawberry shortbread dough in the middle, and top with a second large sheet of parchment.
Then just start gently rolling the dough out, making sure to rotate the dough and change your direction of rolling every so often, until it’s about a 1/4 inch thick. This will help you roll it out more evenly! When rolling between sheets of parchment paper, your dough will want to form a u-shape, causing the parchment to arch up at some points.
It can be annoying, yes, but it’s much easier (and far less sticky) than rolling it without parchment. It also helps you avoid adding excess flour which can cause your dough to become too dry.
Baking The Shortbread
You can cut this shortbread into any shape you like really! I just thought little rectangles would be fun. Check the recipe below for what size these are.
As for baking this strawberry shortbread, they can take anywhere from 12-14 minutes depending on how your behaves. Start watching them around the 10 minute mark and look for those slightly browned edges. Just be careful not to over-bake them as you want them to still be somewhat soft (they’ll continue to bake a little on the sheets as they cool down).
This dough also doesn’t rise or spread a crazy amount, so I was able to fit 16 cookies all on one large baking sheet!
Adding the Lemon Glaze
How you apply the lemon glaze is totally up to you! I show you a few different options here (see images above this section). My favorite is the diagonal method—it just looks so fancy, you know? Being that I am myself very, very fancy indeed.
To achieve the diagonal look, I just play a bench/dough scraper (any sturdy, straight edge works) across the cookie, spoon glaze over half (guiding it around and over the edge with the back of the spoon), and then lift the scraper up and towards the glaze so it leaves a straight line.
You can also more easily just dunk these in the glaze or pipe/drizzle it overtop. If you’re adding some extra crushed up freeze-dried strawberries, you’ll want to sprinkle those over right after adding the glaze. Wait too long and the lemon glaze will set before they have a chance to stick.
“Strawberry Lemonade” from Better Booch
I’m been a big kombucha fan for some years now and truthfully, Better Booch takes the cake. You can’t go wrong with any of their flavors! The same can be said for the newest addition to their lineup—the “Strawberry Lemonade” booch with hints of strawberry, lemon, and lavender.
While I personally love lavender, I chose to leave that flavor out as most aren’t or may struggle to find it at their local grocery store. With that said, you could totally incorporate it into this strawberry shortbread! You could grind up a teaspoon or two and add it into the dough or sprinkle some overtop the glaze in place of the freeze-dried strawberries.
As for coming up with this recipe, I wanted to embody the feeling of sipping on a cold beverage under a warm summer fun—but in cookie form! This strawberry shortbread is a fun spin on the classic recipe and the lemon glaze is subtle and doesn’t overpower the strawberry. I hope you enjoy them, friends!
Check out all of Better Booch’s flavors here—trust me, you’ll fall in love!
Tag me (@joshisbaking) over on Instagram if you make these strawberry shortbread cookies! These would be the perfect addition to your next gathering with friends this summer.
Happy baking!
Check out some of my most recent recipes:
- Everything Bagel Pastries with Cream Cheese
- Apple and Goat Cheese Tart with Fig Jam
- Strawberry Almond Snacking Cake
Strawberry Shortbread with a Lemon Glaze
- Prep Time: 30 Min.
- Chill Time: ~1 Hour
- Cook Time: 15 Min.
- Total Time: ~1 Hour. 45 Min.
- Yield: 15–16 Cookies 1x
Description
Buttery soft strawberry shortbread with a tart lemon glaze—summer in a cookie!
Ingredients
Strawberry Shortbread
- 1 cup butter, softened (226g) (almost room temp)
- 3/4 confectioners sugar (80g)
- 3 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder (12g)
- From a 1 oz. (28g) bag of freeze-dried strawberries, pulsed in a blender or food processor, then sifted to remove clumps.
- 1 tsp. vanilla paste or extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Lemon Glaze
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted (~250g)
- 1 teaspoon pure lemon paste or juice
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla bean paste or extract
- 4 tablespoons whole milk
- Extra freeze dried strawberries to crumble overtop (optional)
Instructions
- Whisk together your flour and salt. Set aside. Crush up/pulse/grind the freeze-dried strawberries and sift into a bowl to remove clumps (if not done so already), so you’re left with just the powder. Save the clumps to crush overtop cookies at the end (optional).
- Sift your powdered sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add your strawberry powder, mixing on low for about 15 seconds to combine (you can also whisk together if that’s easier). Add your butter and beat on medium-high speed 3 minutes (start on low and work up to avoid powder going everywhere) until lighter and fluffier, scraping down the bowl halfway through and after.
- Beat in your vanilla paste or extract on medium high for 30 seconds. Scrape down the bowl again. With your mixer on low, gradually add in the flour mixture until just combined (takes me about a minute). Form the dough into somewhat flat disc, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and roll out any air bubbles with a rolling pin, then chill in the fridge for 30-45 minutes to firm up.
- Take the dough of the fridge and let rest for 5 minutes on the counter (will make it easier to roll). Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper (lightly sprinkling the bottom one with flour) until ~1/4 inch thick. Then, cut into smaller rectangles/squares (mine were 2.5in x 3.5in). Make sure to use and re-roll the excess dough to get more cookies.
- Place a on large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spaced an inch or two apart (these won’t spread much). Chill for 30 more minutes (preheat the oven to 350°F during this time). Then, bake at 350°F for 12-14 minutes on the center rack (edges/bottom slightly brown, but still somewhat soft).
- Let cool on the sheet for 30 minutes before transferring to separate rack to cool completely. To make the glaze, sift your powered sugar into a small bowl, add in the rest of the glaze ingredients, and then whisk until smooth (add more powdered sugar to thicken or more milk to thin out). Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before applying the glaze (see blog above for how I got the diagonal look).
These should last for about a week stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- If your strawberry shortbread is evenly slightly warm when adding the glaze then it won’t stick like you see here! Give them plenty of time to cool down, otherwise it’ll just slight off and you don’t be able to glaze it properly. Your patience will pay off, trust me.
- See some tips in the blog above for rolling out the dough if you’re having some trouble!
Check out my other recipes with Yes! Apples:
- Apple Biscoff Cheesecake Bars
- German Apple Cake with Golden Figs
- Fresh Apple Oatmeal Cookies
- Apple and Almond Cream Galette
Looking for something else to bake?
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