Strawberry lemonade cookies offer the perfect balance between chewy and soft. Made with fresh chopped strawberries and filled with an irresistible cream cheese layer, these cookies are a real summer delight!
Why this recipe works
These strawberry lemonade cookies are light and airy and pack a ton of summer flavor into one bite. With the addition of cream cheese in the center, these cookies are bumped up a notch (or five) resembling a delicious cheesecake cookie with tart lemon and sweet strawberries thrown into the mix.
With the warmer months still ahead of us, we gravitate towards spring and summer’s classic flavors for dessert options, two of which shine beautifully in these cookies. It’s truly like a glass of strawberry lemonade but in sweet, chewy cookie form!
Ingredients you will need
Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version at the end of this post.
STRAWBERRIES – We prefer using fresh chopped strawberries for these, but if you want to use frozen strawberries you can certainly substitute those in its place. You’ll want to fully thaw your frozen strawberries and pat them dry before adding them to the recipe if you decide to do so.
LEMON – As with the strawberries, we suggest using fresh lemon for this recipe. We’ll be using the lemon for its juice and zest, and you don’t want to skip the zest, trust me!
CREAM CHEESE – You will need 1/4 cup softened cream cheese to make this layer. Mix the cream cheese with lemon zest and powdered sugar and you have a creamy, lemony cheesecake layer in your cookies that people will go crazy over. You can substitute with a light, fat-free cream cheese without compromising the flavor or texture if you’d like.
How to Make Strawberry Lemonade Cookies
These step by step photos and instructions are here to help you visualize how to make this recipe. You can Jump to Recipe to get the printable version of this recipe, complete with measurements and instructions at the bottom.
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Prepare strawberries by mixing them with lemon juice and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Allow the mixture to sit for ten minutes, then drain off the liquid.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and whisk together to combine.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, ½ cup sugar, and brown sugar for three to five minutes, or until light and fluffy. Beat in egg until combined. Add vanilla extract. Add in flour mixture until combined, without over-mixing the dough.
- Gently fold strawberries into the cookie dough. A wooden spoon is recommended for this.
- Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and lemon zest in a medium bowl.
- Scoop into 12 small balls about the size of a teaspoon, and place onto a baking sheet.
- For this next step, it may help to use a small ice cream scoop or medium cookie scoop if you have one. Scoop 24 medium-sized balls of dough, about the size of a tablespoon, and then flatten onto the same – or a separate (optional) baking sheet.
- Using a lightly greased small spatula, lift the cream cheese balls one by one and place them on top of 12 of the dough circles.
- Place the remaining 12 dough circles on top of the cream cheese balls and cookie dough, forming a “sandwich”, carefully pinching the edges together.
- Carefully squeeze each “sandwich” around its outer edge, to form it into a ball shape.
- Place cookie dough balls at least two inches apart onto a prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, or until edges just start to turn golden. Do not overbake.
- Remove from oven and carefully transfer to wire cooling rack to cool for ten minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
A tip to get your butter and cream cheese to room temp (soften) faster is to slice it into cubes and let it sit out for around 20 minutes. By using softened ingredients it will ensure there are no lumps in your batter or cream cheese mixture.
You can store your cookies in an air tight container kept in the refrigerator for up to one week.
Though these cookies are incredible on their own, but the addition of white chocolate chips would be a nice touch. You could also whip up a powdered sugar glaze to drizzle on top of the cookies and sprinkle with some finely grated lemon zest.
Absolutely! You can freeze these cookies for for 3-4 months. I like to prepare the dough balls then flash freeze them on a baking sheet, once they’re firm place the frozen balls into a freezer bag or an air-tight container.
Strawberry lemonade cookies are bursting with refreshing summer flavors amplified with a layer of lemony cream cheese goodness.
More Cookie and Bar Recipes
- Lemon Bars
- Orange Crinkle Cookies
- Lemon Meringue Pie Bars
- Lemon Streusel Squares
- Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars
- Strawberry Cake Mix Cookies
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Strawberry Lemonade Cookies
IMPORTANT – There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
- 1 cup strawberries chopped
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp granulated white sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter softened, 1 stick
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 egg large
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling
- ¼ cup cream cheese softened
- 3 Tbsp powdered sugar
- zest from 1 lemon
Things You’ll Need
Before You Begin
- Store your cookies in an air-tight container kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- This cookie dough freezes well. Place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet to flash freeze. Once mostly frozen, remove from baking sheet and place in a zip-top freezer safe bag or an air tight container. They will freeze fine for 3-4 months.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line two large rimless baking sheets with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- Prepare strawberries by mixing them with lemon juice and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar. Allow the mixture to sit for ten minutes, then drain off the liquid.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and whisk together to combine.
- In a large bowl, beat butter, ½ cup sugar and brown sugar for three to five minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Beat in egg until combined. Add vanilla extract. Add in flour mixture until combined, without over-mixing the dough.
- Gently fold strawberries into the cookie dough. A wooden spoon is recommended for this.
- Line another one or two baking sheet(s) with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar and lemon zest in medium bowl. Scoop into 12 small balls about the size of a teaspoon, and place onto baking sheet.
- Scoop 24 medium-sized balls of dough using a cookie scoop, about the size of a tablespoon, and then flatten onto the same – or a separate (optional) baking sheet.
- Using a lightly greased small spatula, lift the cream cheese balls one by one and place them on top of 12 of the dough circles.
- Place the remaining 12 dough circles on top of the cream cheese balls and cookie dough, forming a “sandwich”, carefully pinching the edges together.
- Carefully squeeze each “sandwich” around its outer edge, to form it into a ball shape.
- Place cookie dough balls at least two inches apart on original prepared baking sheet(s) and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, or until edges just start to turn golden. Do not overbake.
- Remove from oven and carefully transfer to wire cooling rack to cool for ten minutes.
Nutrition
Amanda Davis
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Cammie Reeves says
These are my husbands favorite!! I will be making these a lot!! I look forward to new recipes daily and have tried most, very good!! Have a blessed day
Ailsa says
This recipe was not good, it said to thaw the butter and cream cheese, I did. So the cream cheese filling ended up being too soft and goopy to even form into balls.
So I would suggest having at least the cream cheese CHILLED instead of softened.
I have no intention of doing this again and would not recommend it.