High Altitude Strawberry Sugar Cookies

These strawberry sugar cookies are incredibly soft, moist and chewy, with a pretty crackled surface that's dipped in strawberry icing.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 3 votes

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Chill Time 1 30

Total Time 2

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings24

⅓ cup pureed, smashed or very finely chopped fresh strawberries (about 3-4 medium strawberries)
1 cup granulated sugar, (plus 1/4 cup extra, for rolling the cookies)
6 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft
2 large egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount
1 ½ tsp corn starch
2 tbsp finely crushed freeze dried strawberries
1 drop "super red" gel food coloring, optional
2 cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
¾ tsp baking soda

In a bowl, combine everything except the flour and baking soda. Use an electric mixer to beat the ingredients together for about 2 minutes, until well combined.
Combine the flour and baking soda, add to the cookie dough, and use a spatula to stir the dough together.
Use a medium cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tbsp) to scoop the dough into 24 balls. Roll the balls smooth between your hands, roll the dough balls in the extra 1/4 cup sugar, then slightly flatten the balls with the palm of your hand. Cover the cookie dough and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours before baking the cookies.
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the chilled cookie dough on the pan, with 2-3 inches between each. Keep the remaining dough refrigerated until ready to bake.
Bake the cookies for about 10-11 minutes, until the edges are set. Let cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool for about 15-20 minutes before icing.

In a bowl, stir together the powdered sugar, meringue powder and crushed freeze dried strawberries. Stir in the vanilla and milk until smooth and drizzly.
To ice the cookies, you can just use a spoon to lightly drizzle the icing over the tops of the cookies. Or, for the look pictured in today's post, hold a cookie by the edges, and very lightly dip the top of the cookie in the icing. You don't want to submerge the cookie and fully cover the top in icing, or you won't see the pretty crackles in the cookies.
Let the iced cookies dry for several hours until the icing is fully set.

Keyword High Altitude, Iced Cookies, Strawberry, Sugar Cookies