This might be the best Valentine's Day cookie recipe yet! These soft and chewy pink sugar cookies are naturally flavored with freeze dried strawberries and are so easy to make. Plus, these only take 10 minutes to prepare and you need just 9 ingredients.
I love making sugar cookies, like these chocolate chip sugar cookies, since they're so easy to make! These pink sugar cookies are perfect for Valentine's or Galentine's Day, and you can add a bit of pink food coloring to make that color pop!
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Tell me about this recipe!
- These sugar cookies have a delicious strawberry flavor thanks to ground up freeze dried strawberries. You can find these at Target, Trader Joe's or on Amazon. You could also replace it with freeze dried raspberries if you prefer that flavor!
- I added some food coloring to my pink sugar cookies to make the color pop a bit more. My favorite food dye is Americolor and I used the shade 'Soft Pink'. You can leave the food dye out if you want to keep it natural, but please note the cookies will be beige with a few flecks of pink.
- The cookies are rolled in sugar and then chilled for about 20 minutes. This helps the cookies stay soft and fluffy, plus it helps them not spread so much in the oven.
- This recipe is really similar to my sprinkle sugar cookie recipe, but we've got an extra egg yolk to help keep the cookies moist and we're using baking powder instead of baking soda!
Ingredients Needed
The printable recipe card with the full list of ingredients and instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
- Flour: I use all purpose flour for these pink sugar cookies.
- Butter: I always use European style butter, like KerryGold, for my baking. European style butter has a higher butterfat content which makes it richer and creamier.
- Baking Powder: Make sure your baking powder is still within date before baking these cookies! Baking powder will help your cookies lift up slightly and create those cracks on the top of the cookie.
- Sugar: We only use white granulated sugar in this recipe, no light brown sugar at all! We'll need a bit of extra sugar to roll the cookie dough balls before chilling. This will make your finished cookies look sparkly!
- Freeze dried strawberries: This is what gives us the strawberry flavor! I buy my freeze dried strawberries whole and then pulse them in my blender until I have a fine powder. You can usually buy these at Target, Trader Joe's, health food stores or online. Make sure you are using freeze dried strawberries and not frozen ones.
How to make this recipe
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Pulse your freeze dried strawberries in a blender or food processor and set aside.
Step 2: In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat your butter on medium speed until it is creamy. This will take about 1 minute.
Step 3: Pour your sugar into the bowl with the butter and beat for 3 minutes until it is light and fluffy.
Step 4: Add your egg, egg yolk and vanilla to the batter and mix until it is completely incorporated.
Step 5: Add your dry ingredients and beat on your lowest speed. When there are just a few streaks of flour left, add your freeze dried strawberry powder and pink food dye (if using). Use a rubber spatula to fold everything together until the batter is evenly pink.
Step 6: Scoop out one and a half tablespoons of sugar cookie dough and roll into a ball between your palms. Roll the cookie dough balls into your extra sugar and then place on a plate or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with all the cookie dough, then chill for at least 20 minutes. Bake 4-6 (depending on the size of your baking tray!) at a time for 11-12 minutes. Keep the remaining cookie dough in the fridge while you're baking your cookies. The cookies will be puffed in the middle and have set edges. The cookies continue to bake on the baking tray when removed from the oven and will then crack. Bake the remaining cookies 4-6 at a time.
Recipe Tips
- I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It makes a huge difference to your baking and is the most accurate way to bake!
- I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients before you start baking.
- I recommend using a light colored metal baking sheet with parchment paper for baking these cookies. I tested this with silicone baking mats and found the cookies spread a lot more.
- Add a little food coloring at a time until you get your perfect pink color!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! I added a bit of Americolor food colouring in the shade 'soft pink' to get this vivid pink color. Please note though that the baked cookies will be slightly lighter in color compared to the cookie dough.
Yes! Chilling the cookie dough will help the cookies keep their shape when they bake and not spread.
Once your cookies are out of the oven, use a large circular cookie cutter and place it over the cookie. Scoot the cutter around gently, this will smooth out any edges and make your cookies perfectly round.
Try these cookie recipes next!
Have you made this recipe? Make sure to tag me on Instagram @alpineella and leave a review below if you have! If you want more baking ideas, you can follow me on Pinterest.
Recipe
Pink Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 320 grams all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 227 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 350 grams granulated sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 24 grams freeze dried strawberries
- ½ cup granulated sugar for rolling the cookies
- pink food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a blender or food processor, blend your freeze dried strawberries until you have a fine powder.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute until soft and creamy.
- Add your sugar and beat on medium-high for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add your egg, egg yolk and vanilla, then beat until it is well combined.
- Add your dry ingredients and beat on low, stop as soon as the flour is combined.
- Add your strawberry powder and food dye and mix with a rubber spatula until evenly pink. Only add the food coloring a bit at a time, add a few drops until you have the shade of pink you want.
- Scoop out the dough into 1 ½ tablespoon balls and roll in the extra granulated sugar. Chill for at least 20 minutes, or up to overnight.
- Bake 4-6 at a time (depending on the size of your baking sheet!) for 11-12 minutes. While you're baking those, keep the others in the fridge. The cookies will be slightly puffed and the sides should be set. The cookies will continue cooking when they’re taken out of the oven and the middle will set and crack.
Moore says
Katie
Lexi says
can i also do this with fresh strawberries? and are the calories per piece?
Ella says
Hi Lexi, I don't recommend making this recipe with fresh strawberries as they have too much moisture in them! The calories are per cookie 🙂
Sofia says
Thank you for this recipe! I made these to celebrate the release of the Barbie movie, and they were a hit at the office! Everyone loved the texture and the fact that it wasn’t too sweet. I doubled the recipe and expected to get 36 cookies, but it actually made 56! 😂
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review!! I just saw Barbie today and absolutely loved it, I definitely think she would enjoy these cookies 😂
Jamie says
I've made these twice. The first time they were too sweet and adding the strawberry powder and food coloring at the end was difficult to mix. Second time around reduced sugar to 200gr, added strawberry powder to dry ingredients and added food coloring with vanilla. Much more uniform and better flavor. A great treat at a Peppa Pig themed birthday party.
Tina says
My cookies didn’t spread out as much as yours. Is it because I chilled them overnight? They tasted delicious though! I also added 5 more grams of strawberry.
Ella says
Hi Tina! Yes, the longer you chill them the less they will spread out. Chilling them for longer will give them a better flavor though!
Abigail says
I made these for a coworker’s birthday and they were a hit! Everyone loved them! I accidentally doubled the strawberry though but it wasn’t overpowering at all. They came out soft and chewy and perfect! I will definitely be making them again ☺️
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review!! 🙂
Brittani says
Hello, Do I need to flatten the dough before baking?
Brittani says
So, you added 2 1/2 cups freeze dried strawberries? I bet the taste is lovely!
Naty says
Hi. I am craving for strawberry cookies and these look delicious! Do you think i can add white chocolate chips to this dough? Thank you!
Ella says
I haven't tested it but I think you can!
Mandie says
Could this work as rolled dough instead of drop cookies?
Ella says
Hi! I haven't tried rolling it out but I don't think it would work, so sorry about that!
Aaliyah says
Can I leave out the strawberries? I don’t mind if the sugar cookies aren’t strawberry flavoured I just need pink sugar cookies. (Im using food colouring)
Ella says
Hi! Yes you can!
Mp says
It does, thanks! These cookies are getting baked this weekend 😁
Katie says
I made a batch of these for a family birthday and the entire batch was eaten by four people within 5 hours. Everyone loved these cookies. Texture, taste, everything 5 stars
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review!!
Mp says
Hi Ella,
Is the 24gr of strawberries whole or after blended to powder? I have some powder left from the strawberry filled cupcakes so was wondering if I can use that instead.
Thanks,
Ella says
It'll be the same weight before and after blending, it only changes in volume! Hope that helps 🙂