Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

These strawberry shortcake cookies are studded with fresh strawberries and filled with zesty, tangy cream cheese. The cookies are crisp and crunchy on the outside, with softer and more chewy centre. Ideal summertime cookie, which is bursting with fruity and fragrant flavours!

Shortcake cookies are similar in texture to my Easy Shortbread Cookies. They have crispy edges and crumbly texture, but thank to the addition of fresh strawberries and that cream cheese filling, they remain soft in the middle.

If you like the taste of roasted strawberries, with their saucy and fragrant juices along with buttery dough, you will absolutely love these. It's almost like a Strawberry Crumble in a biscuit form!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage and freezing
• Frequently asked questions
• Top tip
• 📖 Recipe
• Comments

Ingredients

To make these strawberry shortcake cookies you will need:

• Strawberries - It is best to use fresh strawberries, as they will retain their shape best, but you can also sub for frozen strawberries. Just make sure to thaw them first, discarding as much of the liquid as possible.
• Flour - Plain, all purpose flour will work best, but you can also use wholemeal or gluten-free flour instead.
• Sugar - There are two different types of sugar here, white caster or granulated sugar and soft light brown sugar. You can use only one type of sugar, but the flavour will not be the same. Brown sugar adds more buttery, caramel-like notes to the cookies. I also use a small amount of demerara sugar to sprinkle the baked cookies with, but this step and ingredient are optional.
• The cream cheese filling - This is totally optional, but highly recommended. To make the soft cheese filling you will need some full fat cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon zest.

Instructions

Strawberry cookies can be made with or without the cream cheese filling. If you are short on time, or just don't want to use the soft cheese, simply skip it from the recipe. Scoop the dough into baking tray (you should get roughly about 24 cookies) and reduce the baking time to about 10 minutes.

For stuffed strawberry shortcake cookies, start with preparing the cream cheese mixture first, as it will need chilling for about 30- 40 minutes. I recommend freezing the cream cheese first, because it is much easier to handle it that way. Otherwise it is just too soft and messy to shape or use.

Hint: Tossing the chopped strawberries in sugar and lemon juice will draw out the moisture from the berries. If you skip this step, the cookies will become too soft and mushy after baking, as the strawberries will release too much juice. It also helps to improve the taste and texture of the fruit.

Hint: If you find that the cookie dough is too sticky to work with, place it in the fridge for about 30- 45 minutes.

Variations

• Skip the filling - omit the cream cheese filling, and simply scoop out the dough and bake for 10- 12 minutes for a delicious strawberry cookies!
• Enhance the flavour - add 2-3 tablespoons of freeze-dried strawberries to the dough to give your shortbread even more of that fruity flavour.
• Extra crunch - sprinkling or rolling the cookies in some demerara sugar will create the most incredible strawberry crunch cookies!
• Optional add-ons - adding some chopped white chocolate, a pinch of cardamom or a hand full of chopped macadamia nuts will take these strawberry shortbread cookies to a whole new level.
• Vegan Shortcake Cookies - check out these vegan shortcake sandwich cookies from Nourishing Amy blog for a vegan version.

Equipment

Other than a cookie scoop or an electric mixer and some baking trays, you don't need any fancy kitchen equipment to make these shortbread cookies.

I used small cookie scoop, which is 1 tablespoon in capacity. Alternatively, use a tablespoon measure (remember that measuring tablespoon is different to your large kitchen/ soup spoon). If you don't have an ice cream scoop or a measuring spoon, simply use your hands to scoop and shape the cookies.

Storage and freezing

The cookies without the filling can be stored in the airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature, or up to 7 days in the fridge. Stuffed cookies will need to be stored in the fridge, in the airtight container for up to 5 days.

You can also freeze them (with or without the filling) for up to 3 months. Place the cookies on a baking tray and transfer to the freezer. Once frozen, remove from the tray and place them in the freezer friendly bag or container.

When baking them from frozen, add an extra 4-5 minutes to the baking time.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use frozen strawberries?

You can use frozen strawberries, although fresh ones will always work best. When using frozen strawberries, thaw them first, drain all the water and juice, then chop them into smaller pieces and prepare them as per the recipe instructions. Frozen strawberries will be more mushy in texture, but still delicious!

Is shortcake the same as shortbread?

They are VERY similar, the only difference is that the shortcake has some baking powder added to it, where the shortbread is made with fat (butter), flour and sugar only.

Do I have to freeze the cream cheese filling first?

No, but it will be much easier to shape the cookies if you do. Once you mix the cream cheese with icing sugar it will become very soft and almost runny. Freezing this mixture makes the rest of the process much easier to handle.

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📖 Recipe

This recipe is adapted from Delish Strawberry Shortcake Cookies.