Soft and chewy lemon sugar cookies frosted with marbled lemon and strawberry buttercream!
Although lemonade reigns supreme when it comes to refreshing summer beverages, it’s a little too sour for my tastes. I need something sweet to offset the sour, which is why I’m ALL about the berry lemonades. Raspberry lemonade, strawberry lemonade, blackberry lemonade–I love them all!
So since we’re right in the midst of strawberry season, I thought now would be the perfect time to make up some Strawberry Lemonade Cookies!
With a deliciously thick and chewy lemon cookie base slathered in both lemon AND strawberry buttercream, these Strawberry Lemonade Cookies are guaranteed to captivate those taste buds of yours. In fact, I served these LOVEly cookies at Easter last weekend, and they were an absolute hit! Needless to say, the platter was bare when I left.
For these cookies, I used the same sugar cookie recipe from my Soft & Chewy Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies with just a few little adjustments. It’s not overly sweet, making it the perfect base to go under a generous layer of buttercream.
One of the key ingredients for baking up such perfectly soft and buttery cookies is cream cheese. It’s not the most common ingredient used in sugar cookie recipes, but it definitely should be. Not only does cream cheese yield a wonderfully soft and chewy texture, but it also heightens the overall butteriness of the cookie.
Another ingredient worth mentioning is cream of tartar. You’ll often see this ingredient used in snickerdoodles. Cream of tartar helps cookies rise and also prevents them from over-browning. Adding it to the dough keeps the sugar from banding together and crystallizing, so that you end up with more of a tender chew. The cream of tartar also adds a slightly tangy flavor.
To infuse these sugar cookies with lemony tartness, I added a few tablespoons of freshly-squeezed lemon juice as well as a tablespoon of lemon zest. Once combined, the dough needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour to allow the flavors to develop and intensify. This will also firm up the dough, making it much easier to work with.
To add a nice delicately crisp exterior, these cookies get rolled in granulated sugar before they go onto the baking sheet. And because this dough doesn’t spread much as it bakes in the oven, I like to help the cookies out a little by using the flat bottom of a glass to press them into discs.
Tip: If the dough starts to stick to the glass, just dip it into the granulated sugar before pressing the dough balls with it.
Now let’s talk BUTTERCREAM.
To make the buttercream, you’ll beat some butter (obvi), a pinch of salt, a little vanilla, and almond extract together until smooth and creamy. Then you’ll add some powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until light and fluffy. Transfer half of the buttercream to another bowl, and stir in a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice. This is your lemon buttercream.
As for the other half of the buttercream, you’ll stir in some seedless strawberry preserves, a little bit of lemon juice, and red food coloring. The food coloring is totally optional, and you might not even need it if your preserves provide enough color for the frosting. If you can’t find seedless strawberry preserves/jam, just push the preserves through a fine mesh sieve to remove any seeds. That’s what I ended up doing!
How you decide to frost these cookies is totally up to you! I sort of created a “marble” effect by placing a dollop of each frosting onto the cookie and carefully blending the two. If you end up using this method, I suggest spreading the lemon frosting over the strawberry frosting first since the pink tends to overshadow the white. Also, try to keep the spreading to a minimum so that you can still see the two distinct colors.
As I mentioned earlier, my friends and family ADORED these Strawberry Lemonade Cookies. They’re supremely soft, buttery, and deliciously lemony. Not to mention, they’re frosted with a generous amount of both strawberry and lemon buttercream. What’s NOT to love??
Strawberry Lemonade Cookies
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies:
- 2 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup divided
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Lemon and Strawberry Frostings:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup seedless strawberry jam*
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice divided
- Red Food Coloring (optional)
Instructions
Make the Cookies:
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy. Add the 1/2 cup granulated sugar and powdered sugar, beating until combined. Add the vegetable oil, egg, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, and almond extract and mix until fully incorporated.
- Gradually mix flour mixture into wet ingredients until dough comes together. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Place remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar into a small bowl. Roll dough into balls that are a little larger than golf balls. Coat ball in sugar and place on lined baking sheet. Repeat process with more dough until you have 6 or 7 balls spaced at least 2 inches apart. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten each dough ball to about 1/2" thickness. It's okay if the cookies form a rim on the edges.
- Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes or until tops look dry. They should still be pale in color--no browning. Try not to overbake or you'll end up with hard, crispy cookies. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the Frostings:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, salt, vanilla, and almond extract together on high until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, beating until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Transfer half of the frosting to another the bowl; set aside. To the frosting in the mixer, add the jam, 1.5 teaspoons of the lemon juice, and food coloring. Mix until smooth and creamy. Stir the remaining 1.5 Tablespoons lemon juice into the other half of the frosting.
To Decorate:
- Drop a tablespoon of lemon frosting onto one half of the cookie, and a tablespoon of strawberry frosting onto the other half of the cookie. Using an offset spatula or butter knife, spread/blend the two frostings into an even layer.