Lemon and strawberry sugar cookie doughs meet up in these refreshing Strawberry Lemonade Cookies! Two doughs bake together and get drizzled with lemon icing and a dusting of strawberry on top for the perfect spring treat! My Strawberry Lemonade Cookie recipe is below:

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

May is the BEST month. It’s the perfect blend of spring and summer. It’s got all the best celebrations–Teacher Appreciation, Nurse Appreciation, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, My Birthday. And as a parent, it gets filled with all of these wonderful end-of-the-year celebrations for the kids that are so fun!

So the perfect month needs a GREAT cookie. Since last week was Teacher Appreciation week, I brought the boys into the kitchen with me to make these really special Strawberry Lemonade Cookies together. My boys are 6 and 3, and they both love spending time cooking with me. They sit on the kitchen counter (which honestly I think is maybe 3/4 of the fun for them), and they snack on fruit and cereal while we mix up all the ingredients. This is definitely not baking as a form of relaxation, but it is a lot of fun.

The boys were just thrilled to be a part of making these cookies for their teachers at school. And there are a lot of elements here that are fun for them! They loved getting to roll the separate lemon and strawberry doughs into balls and then SMUSH the balls together to make one cookie with 2 doughs. They loved whirring up the freeze dried strawberries in the food processor and watching their favorite snack turn to dust. And they loved decorating them with lemon icing and a sprinkle of strawberry dust.

And they LOVED eating them, of course.

The cookie dough here is a simple sugar cookie dough. I then separate the dough into two bowls and add lemon to one and strawberry dust to the other. I love the flavor combo. They’re really visually appealing and feel homemade as each cookie looks a little different from the next depending how the two doughs swirl together. So sweet!

The Strawberry Lemonade Cookies also have that fun appeal of tasting a little different with each bite depending if you’re getting lemon, strawberry, a combo, extra strawberry dust on top, lemon icing, etc. That makes the cookies extra fun for the adults too!

My Strawberry Lemonade Cookies are the perfect way to say ‘thank you’ to great teachers or anyone else you’d like to celebrate this month! Here’s how I make them!

How I make my Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

Ok, so while these cookies are super pretty and fun, they do require a few bowls in the kitchen (so a little extra clean up….sorry). I start by preheating the oven to 350ºF and lining two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Then move over to the food processor and add in a bag of freeze dried strawberries. Pulse them up until they’re just dust. Set that aside for a minute.

Now use a mixing bowl to combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set that aside for a minute too!

Move over to the electric mixer and begin whipping the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add in the sugar and beat until light and a pale yellow color. Then finish adding the wet ingredients (1 egg, 1 egg yolk, and vanilla). Keep mixing until combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until it just comes together to form a dough.

OK, now the fun part! Take half of the dough and put it back in the mixing bowl. With the half that’s in the mixer, add lemon zest and juice. Now you’ve got your lemon dough. Remove that from the mixer and add the other half of the dough. Add 1/4 cup of strawberry dust and give it a whirl. Now you’ve got strawberry dough!

Roll both doughs into 1 tsp size balls. Take one lemon and one strawberry and gently roll them together to form one ball. Place it on the cookie sheet and fill up the sheet with about 8 cookies (be careful…they spread!). Bake for 12-14 minutes until starting to lightly brown.

Once cooled, mix up your lemon icing and drizzle on the cookies. Sprinkle them all with the remaining strawberry dust! Try not to eat them all in one sitting!

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies are a really fun baking project. They’re beautiful to gift, but they’d also be great with a cup of coffee or a lemonade and a good romance book (here are some suggestions)! Summer’s right around the corner–the best time for reading romance, in my opinion. These would also be gorgeous and refreshing for a beach picnic. The possibilities are endless!

Strawberry Lemonade Cookies

Recipe by AbbyCourse: DessertDifficulty: Easy

Servings

dozen

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Ingredients

2 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1.2 oz freeze dried strawberries
Lemon Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Add freeze dried strawberries to a food processor or blender. Pulse until the strawberries are a powder.
In a medium mixing bowl, use a whisk to combine the dry ingredients—-flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla. Mix to combine. Then add the flour mixture in on low speed until just combined.
Move half the mixture back to the medium mixing bowl. With the mixture that’s still in the bowl of your electric mixer, add lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix to combine.
Remove the lemon mixture to a separate bowl and add the plain cookie mixture back into the electric mixture with a 1/4 cup of the strawberry powder. Stir to combine.
With both mixtures, make 1 tsp size balls, rolling in your hands. Take one lemon ball and one strawberry ball and press together. Gently press the two balls together and roll lightly to form one ball. Place eight balls on the cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until starting to brown.
Let the cookies cool on the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Finish baking the rest of the cookies
While the cookies are cooling, make the icing. Add the powdered sugar to a small size bowl. Then add in 2 Tbsp lemon juice. Stir until all of the sugar is dissolved. If you want an icing that’s a little thinner, add more lemon juice. Using a fork or spoon, drizzle over half of the cookie. Sprinkle with the rest of the strawberry dust. Let harden and enjoy!