Make the cutest pink cut out cookies with this easy strawberry shortbread cookie recipe. This recipe is not too sweet and has a slight tartness from freeze dried strawberries. Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

Hello readers! It’s been a while since I put out a cookie recipe (I sometimes get burnt out after the Christmas baking season), but I’m back with a cookie that’s perfect for springtime! If you’re a shortbread cookie expert, you can probably go ahead and skip on down to the recipe card. If you’d like some extra tips and tricks, feel free to read on down below.

Shortbread Dough for Cookie Cutters

A traditional shortbread cookie only uses butter, flour, and sugar (and some salt for flavor). With shortbread’s typical crisp texture, the cookie dough is crumbly and difficult to roll out if you wanted to cut shapes. But sometimes you don’t really want a soft sugar cookie – you want something a little more buttery and firm. Luckily, to turn your crumbly shortbread dough into a roll out dough for cookie cutters, you just need to add an egg yolk, which is what I’ve done here.

By the way, with this dough, I didn’t even need a rolling pin to roll it out. I just patted it into a disc with my hands.

Granulated vs. Powdered Sugar for Shortbread

Did you know you can use either granulated sugar or powdered sugar for these cookies? The difference is really only in the end texture of the cookie – I find that powdered sugar gives a more soft, velvety crumb whereas granulated gives you a crisper snap. Even then, I think the average cookie eater probably won’t notice much difference. If you’d like to substitute powdered sugar instead, simply use the same amount by weight, which is just a little more than 3/4 cups in volume.

How to Get a Strong Strawberry Flavor Cookie

The strawberry flavor in this recipe comes from freeze dried strawberries, which I blend to create a strawberry powder. I like to blend my freeze-dried fruit with a little sugar as I find that it helps keep my strawberries from clumping up in my humid kitchen.

Alternatively, if you are in a pinch, you can add artificial strawberry extract and pink gel food coloring to recreate the same effect, but it won’t taste quite the same.

I do not recommend substituting strawberry jam or other strawberry puree, as the liquid will make the cookie dough too loose and not hold its shape well.

Substituting Other Fruit Flavors

You can, however, substitute other freeze-dried fruit to make other fruity shortbread! I’ve used freeze dried raspberries to make a raspberry shortbread, which was delicious and very tart! I expect blueberries would also work well. I recommend substituting by weight and not by volume, as the shape of the fruit differ wildly.

Note: I do not include vanilla extract in this recipe as I really like the natural strawberry flavor, but feel free to add a half teaspoon vanilla extract or other extract of choice if you wish.

Tips and Tricks for Shortbread

Aside from what I’ve written above, the biggest tip for shortbread is to not let the dough get too warm. If the butter melts, you will get a very sad shortbread that won’t hold its shape during baking.

I also really recommend weighing your ingredients for this recipe. Not only is it helpful when measuring the fruit, but it keeps you from adding too much flour to the dough, which will make it more difficult to roll and cut in shapes. This is the digital scale I use, which was very affordable and has worked well.

Making Cherry Blossom Shaped Cookies

To make the cherry blossom design on these cookies, I used the flower shape from this set of small cookie cutters. Cherry blossoms are supposed to only have five petals, but I was too lazy to buy a whole new cookie cutter just for these. There are specific cherry blossom shaped molds and presses, if you’d like to get those. I just like using what I have first.

For the center of the cookie, I just used a toothpick to poke a few holes. So easy!

Of course, outside of cherry blossom season, these cookie would look super cute with a strawberry shaped cookie cutter, right? Heart shapes work well for Valentine’s Day too! See how versatile this recipe is?

More Cookie Recipes

If you liked this recipe, make sure to browse my other cookie recipes as well. Here are some of my favorites:

strawberry shortbread cookie dough cut in cherry blossom shape in a small white dish
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Strawberry Shortbread Cookies

Mochi Mommy
Use cookie cutters, stamps, or presses to easily create cute pink cookies in any shape with this strawberry shortbread recipe.
Servings: 24 cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Chill Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
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Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup freeze dried strawberries (12g)
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
  • 1/2 cup room temperature unsalted butter (113g)
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour (150g)
  • 1 egg yolk

Instructions
 

  • In a food processor or blender, pulse strawberries and 2 tbsp (25g) of the sugar until you get a fine pink powder.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a mixing bowl with electric hand mixer, add butter, remaining sugar, strawberry sugar powder, and salt. Cream until mixture becomes light pink in color and fluffy in texture, similar to frosting.
  • Add egg yolk and continue beating until well incorporated.
  • Add flour and mix on the lowest speed until a crumbly dough forms.
  • Transfer dough to a large sheet of plastic wrap and pat into a 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick disc. Wrap dough completely in the plastic and transfer to the fridge to chill.
  • While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • After 15-20 minutes, remove dough from fridge and transfer to a silicone mat or other clean work surface lightly dusted with flour. Use a 1 inch cookie cutter (or other shaped cutter, stamp, or press) to cut out your cookies. If doing a cherry blossom shape, use the blunt end of a toothpick to poke holes in the center for the stamen design. With a 1 inch cookie cutter, you can get about 24-30 cookies.
  • Arrange cookies on your prepared baking tray about 1 inch apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies have slightly puffed and are only just beginning to brown at the edges.
  • Remove cookies from oven and let cool before eating. Leftovers can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature.
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