Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

I had clipped this recipe out of a Martha Stewart magazine a few years ago and had always wanted to try it. It's made it's way around the blogs, so I had lots of comments to check out to make sure I didn't make any glaring mistakes. In the end these turned out amazingly well (even Hubby agreed and he was quite skeptical when I first mentioned the recipe) and it will definitely be a keeper (especially since it worked out to only be 2 WeightWatchers points per cookie with my adapted recipe!)

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes 2 dozen

12 oz strawberries hulled and chopped (weight after prep)

Zest and juice from 1/2 lemon

9 Tbsp sugar (1/2 c + 1 Tbsp)

2 c flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

6 Tbsp cold butter cut into small cubes

2/3 c whole milk

Sugar in the Raw (or other turbinado sugar), optional, for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Place the prepped strawberries in a small bowl and gently toss with the lemon zest and juice and 2 Tbsp of sugar.
3. In a large bowl whisk together the remaining 7 Tbsp of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter, or if you're like me and don't have one of those, just work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers until the whole thing is crumbly.
5. Once the butter is incorporated, pour in the milk and stir until just mixed before adding in the strawberries.
6. On parchment paper-lined cookie sheets drop the dough (which will be very similar to a biscuit dough rather than a cookie dough) in rounded tablespoons.*
7. Optional - Sprinkle with Sugar in the Raw or turbinado sugar if desired.
8. Bake at 375 for 20-24 minutes and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

I can only image these would be delicious with some strawberry ice cream, you know, if you're into that kind of thing. These are best served the day of baking, but are still delicious two days later as I can attest since I just ate one =)

Happy Spring!!

*The original recipe, and all the others I found online, claim this recipe makes three dozen cookies. Now I'm fully aware that we like large cookies in this house, but I do not think I made them even above average sized and I only got two dozen.