Soft-baked with crisp edges, loaded with chewy dried strawberries and creamy white chocolate, these strawberries & cream cookies deliver a summery-sweet taste any time of year.
Have you ever tried my strawberry biscuit cookies? Buttery, tender, and flaky, the cookies come together like an actual biscuit dough filled with fresh berries. They’re adorable, sweet, and topped with icing.
But they don’t have that chewy-dense texture we all know and love about, say, chocolate chip cookies. That’s because throwing fresh strawberries into cookie dough creates an overly wet cookie dough… aka a cookie paste. I love the strawberry biscuit cookies, but I never really gave up on my strawberry cookie quest.
Enter freeze-dried strawberries, the magical form of berry goodness that makes strawberry buttercream possible. Give the freeze-dried fruit a rough chop and throw them into cookie dough along with white chocolate chunks and cream cheese. This is a recipe for dessert utopia.
Why You’ll Adore These Strawberries & Cream Cookies
- Cream cheese in the dough makes for soft and creamy-tasting cookies
- The freeze-dried strawberries rehydrate in the dough, so the bits of berry are deliciously chewy (not airy and light)
- Perfectly sweet with gooey pools of melted white chocolate
- Thick and soft-baked center, with crispy edges
- Combination of white chocolate and strawberry is so yummy—just like in these white chocolate strawberry cupcakes
- Enjoy sweet strawberries & cream any time of year!
We’ll use the same cookie dough base as these cookies & cream cookies. Using a combination of butter and cream cheese, the cookies are extra soft and uniquely creamy-tasting. So satisfying.x
A Few Key Ingredients You Need
- Cornstarch: I love adding a touch of cornstarch because it helps create a thicker, softer cookie. If you don’t have it, just leave it out.
- Baking Soda: Helps the cookies puff up and then fall to their crinkly, chewy destiny.
- Cream Cheese: Cream cheese makes the dough extra soft and creamy, which I love in so many cookie recipes, like maple walnut tassies and cream cheese sugar cookies.
- White Chocolate: Chopped white chocolate melts into gooey little puddles of sweet creaminess. The pieces on the bottom of the cookies take on a delicious caramelized flavor, too. You can also use white chocolate chips instead, or semi-sweet, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate chips if you prefer.
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries: While these start with a light-as-air dry and crispy texture, the strawberries actually rehydrate in the dough, so they end up delightfully chewy in the baked cookies. (I don’t particularly love the texture of freeze-dried strawberries, but after baking in a wet dough, the texture totally transforms.)
Cream the Butter & Cream Cheese Together First
Creamed room-temperature butter and sugar is the base of many cookie recipes. But before we add the sugar, it’s imperative to properly cream the cream cheese and butter together. The two are different textures—cream cheese is much softer than butter. My tip is to beat the cream cheese in your mixer until very soft and smooth, with no lumps. Then add the softened butter and beat together until combined. This is your creamy base for these strawberries & cream cookies.
Freeze-Dried Strawberries Success Tips
- Where to buy freeze-dried strawberries? I find freeze-dried strawberries in my regular grocery store in the dried fruit aisle. They’re becoming quite common. Trader Joe’s, Amazon, and Target all carry them, as well.
- Mix them into the dough last. Beat in the white chocolate chunks first, and then add in the strawberry pieces on your mixer’s lowest speed, just briefly to incorporate, without letting the mixer crush the berries too much (or you’ll end up with pinkish-taupe cookies). Use the pieces of strawberries, not all the strawberry dust that’s created when you chop the freeze-dried berries. Save that for making the frosting for a strawberry cake!
Expect a thick and sticky dough. Make sure you take the time to chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, otherwise your cookies will spread into shapeless puddles in the oven. The dough stiffens up quite nicely after 2 hours in the refrigerator:
Tips for Shaping Your Cookies
After chilling, scoop the dough (heaping 1.5 Tablespoons/35g in size, I use this medium cookie scoop) and roll into balls. Actually, you want to form them into tall columns (LOL) to help ensure nice thick cookies, like you see me do when making chewy chocolate chip cookies.
These are thick, lumpy-bumpy cookies. Don’t expect them to come out looking uniform, thanks to the chunky pieces of chopped berries and white chocolate, but that’s part of their charm! Check on the cookies about halfway through baking and:
- If they’re not spreading much, take the baking sheet out of the oven and bang it on your counter a couple times, to initiate the spread. The longer you chill the dough, the less the cookies will spread, so if you chill the dough for longer than 2 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before forming into cookies and baking.
- If your cookies are over-spreading or looking really uneven in shape or size, use a spoon to gently press in around the edges to reshape, then return the pans to the oven to finish baking.
I also like to press a few more white chocolate chunks into the tops of the strawberries & cream cookies when they’re still warm, but it’s only for looks. And if you have extra white chocolate, feel free to melt it and drizzle over the cooled cookies.
If you need more cookie inspiration, today’s cookies join 25+ others on my Summer Cookie Recipes collection page. I also included this recipe over on my Valentine’s Day dessert recipes page, but they’re just as tasty any time of the year 🙂 Let’s eat!
Print
Strawberries & Cream Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 28–30 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Using a combination of butter and cream cheese, these strawberry-speckled white chocolate cookies are extra soft and uniquely creamy-tasting. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours before baking.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces (113g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 ounces (170g) white chocolate, to yield 1 cup white chocolate chunks
- 1 and 1/2 cups (45g) roughly chopped freeze-dried strawberries
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the butter and beat until combined, scraping down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, beat in the white chocolate chunks. Add the freeze-dried strawberries and beat on low speed briefly, until just combined.
- Cover and chill the dough for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll cookie dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (I use this medium-size cookie scoop), and place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 13–15 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. While the cookies are still warm, I like to press a few more white chocolate chunks into the tops, just for looks.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here’s how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Sheets | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cornstarch: I love adding a little cornstarch to some cookie recipes because it helps keep the cookies extra soft. You can leave it out if you don’t have any with no other changes to the recipe needed. (The cookies are still pretty soft without it!)
- Cream Cheese: You need 4 ounces of cream cheese for this recipe, so use half of an 8 ounce brick of full-fat cream cheese. Do not use cream cheese spread or whipped cream cheese. If using low-fat or fat-free, keep in mind that the texture of the cookies will be different. They won’t be as rich or chewy and could spread more. I recommend full-fat.
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries: This cookie recipe only works with freeze dried strawberries (or try freeze-dried raspberries or blueberries). Do not use fresh or frozen strawberries. If you want to use those, try these strawberry biscuit cookies instead. I always find freeze-dried strawberries in my regular grocery store in the aisle with the dried fruit. Target, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s carry them, too. Or you can purchase them online.
- White Chocolate: I typically use the Baker’s or Ghirardelli brand white chocolate baking bars, which come in 4-ounce (113g) bars, so I chopped up 1 and 1/2 bars for these cookies. Feel free to use 1 cup white chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Made this as the recipe suggested, but found they puffed up too much and were very cakey, or more like a biscuit than a soft, chewy cookie. The flavor was also a bit breadier and color was a bit darker. So, I did them again, but made a few mods. Only use white sugar, use a whole cup of butter, and omit the cornstarch. What resulted was a much softer, chewier cookie that spread a bit more. Oh, I also recommend leaving the strawberries in big chunks to really get a mouthful of strawberry flavor. Otherwise this is a very creative recipe! Even with the mods I still had to slam the tray to de-puff the cookies, but they actually de-puffed whereas before they didn’t.
Without a doubt – these are THE most delicious cookies I can ever remember making!! At that’s saying a LOT – because I’ve made a LOT of cookies in my 70+ years!!! I made these to bring as a thank you to an Airbnb host who had gone above and beyond to serve us while we were planning out trip. After “trying one” before I packed them up – I decided we had to keep some for ourselves! 5 days after making them, they are still crispy on the outside and soooo pillowy soft on the inside – and the flavor from the freeze dried strawberries coupled with the cream cheese and white chocolate.. to die for!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU for yet another great recipe! I
This cookie wasn’t a winner for me, but I think it’s completely my fault so I’m sharing my experience so y’all can avoid my mistakes. 🙂 I live somewhere where brick cream cheese is not common so I used cream cheese spread; i couldn’t find whole freeze dried strawberries so I used ones that were already in tiny pieces; and I halved the recipe. The dough was a little soft but seemed fine, and the cookies looked beautiful out of the oven, but were a bit dense or stodgy and had zero strawberry flavor. I think the cream cheese spread had a big impact on the texture and I’m sure bigger strawberry chunks would have had better flavor. I also agree with the person who said 8-9 minutes in the oven is plenty for these cookies.
I used this recipe as a way to use up a huge bag of freeze dried strawberries that I bought on a whim. The texture of the cookies is fantastic. As others noted my cookies puffed up too much in the oven but I had read Sally’s hint and I banged them in the counter, this worked perfectly! I only had semi sweet chips on hand, I will definitely seek out white chocolate next time as the semi sweet overwhelms the strawberry flavor in my opinion. The strawberries were a great chewy texture. I left them in big slices instead of chopping them in order to reduce dust and they broke up well enough in the mixer. The dust was hard to limit, however, so the base cookie color is somewhat compromised. I will probably use Sally’s other cookie recipes more often, there are so many amazing ones! But I will keep this one for using up freeze dried fruit .
Great recipe!! We used fresh strawberries and they turned out DELICIOUS!! The strawberries became SO sweet after baked. We added a few extra minutes to the baking time to account for the softness. I also used spelt flour. Tasted like scones in a cookie!
As a huge fan of Sally’s Cookies and Cream cookies (same recipe w/Oreos instead of freeze-dried strawberries), I was excited to try this one. I followed the recipe to the letter. The cookie came out perfectly, but the freeze-dried strawberries did not seem to rehydrate very well. They were still dry and tasted burnt, even though the cookie itself was soft and delicious. I used the same bag of freeze-dried strawberries to make Sally’s strawberry buttercream, which tasted amazing, so I know it wasn’t a bad batch of strawberries. Any thoughts on why this would have happened or what to do differently if I try them again?
Hi Erica! The strawberries are meant to be that texture. They pack a flavor punch! If you’re looking for a cookie using fresh strawberries, you may enjoy our strawberry biscuit cookies.
These are insanely good. I’m a beginner baker and these came out perfectly. (I do weigh the flour) I even took some to the “cookie snob” next door and she raved about them. None of the rest got shared outside the family. Crazy good.
Upon following the recipe I realized the strawberry taste was missing. I added some strawberry jam to help the flavor profile which was pretty weak. It was confusing to my palate. Like what is this? Then it came to me it is more like a tea biscuit or scone than a cookie.
I’m gonna keep toying with the recipe I feel like we got something here but this recipe just isn’t it. Sorry. I am a huge Sally’s fan
I really like the idea of a different cookie other than the usual chocolate chip cookie dough. I mistakenly bought the dried strawberries instead of the freeze dried strawberries. I cut them up into little pieces. Because of other comments of a little bland flavor I added a tsp of Fiori di Sicilia to the batter. Perfect flavor. I had some chopped pecans, I added a cup of the pecans to the batter as well. My cookies turned out good. The dried strawberries turned out fine. They were not gummy or chewy. I will be making them again.
I have dried strawberries – not freeze dried. Would these work?
Hi Susan, we haven’t tested this recipe with dried strawberries in place of freeze-dried, so are unsure of the results. If you try it, please report back!
Tasty change from the average cookie
Amazing recipe, definitely a keeper
They are delicious, but way too cakey to be called cookies. I would love to see a muffin recipe with freeze dried stawberrys and white chocolate 🙂
Hi Luzie, you can use this muffin recipe to make those!
My new favorite cookie! Made this cookie to make ice cream sandwiches. Divided the recipe yield by weight and got 22 cookies. My only problem was after the 2 hour chill they didn’t spread enough so I had to bang the pan on the counter pretty aggressively when I first took them out of the oven. I will definitely be making this cookie again and might try baking without chilling or less chill time.
Just didn’t work for me. I followed the directions exactly, including chilling for 2 hours but when I came time to bake, they didn’t spread well. They staying in a ball and crisped up that way. It was not soft and delectable; kind of bland and solid. I’m just not a baker I suppose….
Hi Jennifer, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. How did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t over measured. That can dry out the cookies, causing them to soak up too much of the wet ingredients and preventing them from spreading properly. You could also try slightly reducing the chill time to help promote spread. For more cookie troubleshooting, this post on 5 cookie baking tips to improve your next batch will be helpful to review (particularly the end of #2: What if cookies AREN’T spreading?). Thank you for giving these a try!
ive been using sallys recipes for years and they always come out great, but these did not. can someone at sallys baking addiction re-test these? i followed all the directions/no substitutions and used a scale like i always do. as other commenters have noted – these puffed up and dont look anything like the photos… taste is decent though.
Excellent cookie recipe! Brought these cookies over to a friend’s house for Sunday lunch and everyone loved them. Easy to make and super tasty!
I wanted to love these cookies, but was completely underwhelmed. Perhaps I cut the strawberries too small, but there wasn’t much of a strawberry taste. The cookie itself was nice and cakey. I probably won’t make these again.
This is one of the best cookies ever. So pretty and yummy. I rolled the balls in caster sugar before baking to make extra sparkly. Thank you Sally, love your recipes!
Hey Sally, see my message below for my review of these incredible cookies. I have a question; can I make these in large batches?
Hi Dona, this recipe doubles nicely. So glad you enjoyed them!