Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Spring has sprung and in between bouts of rain, everyone’s anxious to step out into the sunlight and enjoy the sun, the plants and the Spring air. Since food is so close to my heart, to me this brings about images of the beginning of outdoor eating season. Picnics and potlucks and cookouts, oh my! It seems like everyone is always looking a for a good spring or summertime dish to bring to these events. I have several good side dish options on my blog (I highly recommend either the Pasta with Feta and Roasted Vegetables served cold as a pasta salad or the Zucchini Squares for an outdoor potluck) and though I have lots of yummy cupcake recipes one could bring to such a soiree (my Lemon-Lime Cupcakes have Spring written all over them), I realized I only have one cookie recipe on my whole site! That oversight needed to be remedied immediately.
These truly are a cross between strawberry shortcake and a cookie. The texture is light, soft, pillowy and cake-ier than your average cookie (a little more like a muffin top), but the edges get slightly crisp. I loved the fresh, light citrus flavor that the orange juice and zest added to the batter and the bursts of sweet juicy strawberries in each bite. You can substitute lemon zest/juice for orange if you prefer. I’m sure either way will be delicious. You could also easily halve the recipe to make less cookies if you aren’t baking for a crowd. Bring these little handheld strawberry shortcakes to your next Spring or Summer gathering and watch them disappear. Who doesn’t want a bite of Spring? To view your WW PersonalPoints for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here!
Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 oz strawberries, hulled and diced into ¼” pieces
- 1 tablespoon fresh juice from an orange
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon orange zest
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 2/3 cup fat free half and half
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375. Lightly mist 2 baking sheets with cooking spray or line them with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries, orange juice and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Stir until combined and then set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the other ½ cup of sugar with the orange zest and massage them together with your fingertips until well combined and fragrant. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together to combine. Add the cold butter and cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or two sharp knives, the way you do when making scones, until the butter is cut very small and you have coarse crumbs. Add the half and half and stir together to form the dough. Add the strawberry mixture and gently fold it in until well combined.
- Drop 36 heaping tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden.
Notes
2 per cookie, 3 for 2 cookies (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com) slightly adapted from Pinch of Yum and Bakergirl
