Pretty in pink takes on a whole new meaning in these soft and chewy pink sugar cookies. Their color comes from just a little bit of food gel, and freeze dried strawberry powder gives them their fruity flavor.
This delicious recipe would be perfect to use for Valentine's Day, a baby shower, or just because.
The cookies are fun and colorful but also taste great, thanks to the freeze dried strawberry powder in them! Freeze dried fruits are great ingredients because they don't add moisture to your baked goods but bring a lot of flavor.
For more recipes that use this magical ingredient, see my raspberry chocolate Bundt cake, vanilla cake with strawberry filling, and easy raspberry cream cheese frosting.
And if you want more soft and chewy cookies like this one, my browned butter peanut butter cookies, black cocoa cookies and brown butter sugar cookies have a very similar dough and texture.
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📋 Recipe Notes and Ingredients
The recipe card contains all the steps and ingredients, but below are a few key items that bring flavor and color to these delicious cookies.
- Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste – You don’t need expensive vanilla extract for good flavor. So the extract from your local grocery store is perfectly fine for this recipe. I never taste much difference between pricier extracts and more basic ones.
- Freeze dried strawberries – Freeze dried strawberries have a concentrated, more intense flavor than fresh or even dried fruits. Be sure to grind them into a fine powder before incorporating them into your dough.
- Brown sugar - While many sugar cookie recipes use granulated sugar as their only form of sugar, this one uses a touch of brown sugar, too. This ingredient gives a chewy, soft texture.
- Pink or red food coloring - While the freeze dried strawberries will give your cookies a very faint natural food coloring, the gel is absolutely necessary to achieve a true pink color (see below for a comparison). Wilton, Americolor, and Chef Master food gel are my favorite brands. You'll add this ingredient into your mixing bowl with the hot melted butter in the first step, as heat intensifies the vibrancy and gives a classic pink shade.
No-Chill Cookie Dough
Some cookie recipes call for resting your cookie dough before baking it for best results.
Here, though, you don't need to chill or rest the dough ahead of baking these soft sugar cookies.
You can learn more about the merits of resting your dough in this post from Bon Appétit. The bottom line is that if a recipe does ask you to rest your dough, do it.
📖 Step-by-Step Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Cream Butter, Sugars, and Food Coloring. As your oven is preheating to 350°F, cream together melted unsalted butter, vanilla extract, pink food coloring (if using), and sugars for 3-4 minutes. Do this in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed.
Step 2: Add Dry Ingredients and Egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add salt, baking powder, baking soda, half of the eggs, freeze-dried strawberries, and half of the flour. Mix for about one minute.
Step 3: Continue Mixing. Stop the mixer and add the second egg, strawberries, and flour. Mix again for 30 seconds. Adjust food coloring if needed.
Step 4: Shape the Dough. Using a cookie or ice cream scoop, form the cookie dough balls about ⅔ the size of a golf ball. Place each ball of dough 2 inches apart on an ungreased aluminum cookie sheet.
Step 5: Bake. Bake cookies for 13-14 minutes, until the edges are set but the centers remain soft and chewy.
Step 6: Cool and Serve. Let your pink sugar cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy once firm enough to handle.
💡 Pro Tip for Perfectly Round Cookies
As soon as these pretty cookies exit the oven, you can also help shape and round them if you'd like.
Use a cookie cutter or even the open side of a glass that's slightly bigger than the cookies to gently slide them into a more circular shape.
❓FAQ and Troubleshooting
Cookies can spread if the dough is too moist, without enough dry ingredients to hold it together. It can also spread due to an excessive amount of baking soda.
If you follow the steps in this recipe, though, you won't have that issue.
In general, adding a bit of baking powder or flour to a cookie's dough can help prevent them from spreading as much.
If a recipe calls for a chilled sugar cookie, meaning you need to refrigerate the dough before baking it, do it! That step is not part of this recipe, though.
While delicious as is, these cookies would also look pretty topped with a pink icing.
Right before baking, I also rolled the tops of a few of my balls of dough in white sparkling sugar (see the below image) to dress them up. So pretty and shimmery! Sanding sugar would work, too.
Storing these Cookies
Room temperature - These cookies will stay fresh at room temperature (around 70°F) for 3-4 days.
Refrigerating - Between days of serving them, I recommend freezing these vs. refrigerating.
Bring them out in small quantities at a time if you plan to share them over the course of more than 3 days.
Freezing - They also freeze well for up to three months in an airtight container.
I add wax or parchment paper between the layers as I stack them.
To enjoy, let them come to room temperature before serving. You may also gently warm them for a few seconds on low speed in the microwave.
Freezing the dough - This is another great option; feel free to prep and store the dough for these pink sugar cookies in your freezer. Bring them directly from the freezer and place on baking sheets in a preheated oven for 14-15 minutes.
Best Results: Baking in Grams
If you’re not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking.
While I include cups and grams in my recipe cards, weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency.
I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale.
Tips for the Best Pink Sugar Cookies
Below are some general tips to keep in mind when making this sugar cookie recipe and any recipe, really:
- Periodically check the freshness of your leavening agents. Mix a pinch of baking powder with hot water to see if it reacts. For baking soda, you can mix a pinch of it with a few drops of something acidic, like vinegar or lemon juice. If your leavening agents have no reaction (i.e. you see no fizzing or bubbling), it means they also won't help your ingredients rise during the baking process.
- Before diving into the recipe, clear your workspace and set out all your ingredients in front of you. This will make it less likely that you'll forget to leave something important out of your mixing bowl!
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More Colorful Recipes
Pink Sugar Cookies
Use this easy recipe to make a delicious batch of two dozen beautiful, pink sugar cookies at home in less than an hour! They're perfect for Valentine's Day or another special occasion, like a baby shower or birthday.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 12 T (170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup (180 grams) white sugar
- ¼ cup (45 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 large cold eggs (straight from the fridge)
- 1 oz/30 grams freeze dried strawberry powder
- 2 ½ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- Optional: Pink food gel coloring (Cookies will not be pink without it)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Cream butter, vanilla extract, 7-8 drops pink food gel, and sugars together in your mixing bowl for 3 minutes.
- Stop the mixer and add salt, baking powder, and baking soda as well as half of your eggs, freeze dried strawberries, and flour. Mix for about 45 seconds on medium speed before stopping the mixer to add the remaining egg, freeze dried strawberries, and flour, beating again for 30 seconds. Here, add another drop or two of food gel if cookies aren’t as pink as you would like.
- Scoop small (⅔ the size of a golf ball) round portions of your cookie dough onto ungreased aluminum baking sheets, with about 2 inches between each of them. Bake for 14-15 minutes. Transfer them to cooling racks after they’ve sat on the baking sheets 5 or so minutes outside of the oven and are firm enough to handle.
Notes
- Pink food coloring is necessary for making these cookies a true pink shade. Without it, their color will be extremely faint.
- The nutritional values are approximate and can vary based on the specific brands and measurements of ingredients.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 145 kcal
- Sugar: 10.3 g
- Sodium: 121 mg
- Fat: 6.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.0 g
- Carbohydrates: 21.1 g
- Fiber: 0.7 g
- Protein: 1.1 g
Barbie Fanatic
Oh my gosh, these pink sugar cookies are like a dream come true for a Barbie lover like me! The color is just perfect and reminds me of Barbie's iconic style. I baked these for a Barbie-themed party and everyone was in awe. The taste was as delightful as the appearance. The texture was soft with the right amount of sweetness. I also used some Barbie-themed cookie cutters to make them even more fun. This recipe is definitely a keeper for any Barbie fandom events. Thanks for sharing, Susan
Susan
Oh, love this! What a fun way to celebrate Barbie. So glad these cookies could be fun and useful to share for such a sweet event!