Take simple sugar cookies to a whole new level 😋. These gorgeous sugar cookies are brightened by the flavor of freeze dried strawberries. Using one of my favorite baking tools, moon cake molds, I was able to cut out and stamp these pretty cookies with amazing springtime designs. I cut out little circles on some and filled with my homemade lemon curd which is absolutely luscious, tart and sweet, others I filled with a simple vanilla buttercream. I also made a few sandwich cookies using a smaller moon cake mold and filled those with strawberry jam buttercream. Such uniquely beautiful cookies. The sugar cookie dough is barely sweet, perfect for making sandwich cookies with a variety of sweet fillings.
Strawberry Sugar Cookies:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2-1 teaspoon salt (I like that salty bite)
1.2 ounce bag of freeze dried strawberries ground to a powder
In a mixer (or by hand but get ready to get a workout) blend the slightly softened butter with the sugar and freeze dried strawberry powder until well blended and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Once blended add the egg and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Now add all of your dry ingredients and mix until it comes together. Split the dough into 2 balls, flatten them into disks, wrap in plastic wrap or a ziplock and chill. Chill for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Dust a clean surface with some flour and roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thick while still chilled. You don’t want the dough to soften too much before rolling, if it does stick it back in the fridge. Cut your shapes out (or stamp them using these mooncake molds) and put them on the prepared baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Place them back in the fridge to chill, and while those chill, roll out the other half of the dough and repeat the steps above. Chill the second cookie sheet while the first one bakes. The cookies should take about 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees but watch them because it depends on their size and thickness. Cool before filling.
Lemon Curd Filling:
1/2 cup of lemon juice, Meyer or regular
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon of fine cornmeal
1 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch
4 large eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Directions For Lemon Curd:
1. Melt butter, set aside
2. In a bowl whisk together the lemon juice with all the ingredients. Whisk until well combined. It may look like it won’t come together but it will. If it stays a little lumpy it’s ok, it will come together as it cooks.
3. In a medium saucepan pour the lemon curd mixture and set the heat to medium. You will have to whisk the entire time so that the mixture doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. It will take 5-10 minutes to thicken visibly.
4. Once it’s the consistency of a thin pudding or pastry cream, take off the heat and pour the mixture through a sieve to remove any lumps or bits. Set aside and cool.
Buttercream Filling:
1 stick of softened butter
2 cups of powdered sugar or more if adding jam or jelly
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons of milk or as needed for a spreadable frosting
Directions For Buttercream:
For making the buttercream fruit flavored add 1/4-1/2 cup jam or jelly of choice. I used strawberry jam. I did have to add more powdered sugar to make it thicker and spreadable for filling the cookies.
When ready to make the sandwich cookies, take two cookies and put a dollop of filling on one cookie and top with another. If your filling is on the thin side don’t over fill because the filling will come out of the sides.
If your filling is thick, you can add more to the cookies because a thicker filling will support the weight of the top cookie better.
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