As a Mama I’m always on the hunt for ways to make baked goods festive and colorful in a healthy, natural way. I let Hugo have sweets on occasion and believe me, he loves them, but I do my best to avoid artificial colors and flavors while I still am the one who decides what he does and doesn’t eat!
With Valentine’s Day coming up tomorrow, I couldn’t resist the chance to make something fun and festive for the occasion. I’ve never been huge on this holiday, but I’m excited to make Hugo’s class valentine’s later today, go to his little party tomorrow and eat these beautiful love-y cookies! With any luck the kids will stay asleep and Andy & I can make tacos and margaritas after they go to bed, (my idea of an exciting night.)
Back to the cookies. I saw some gorgeous ombré cookies in Pinterest recently and was so drawn so how lovely they were. Freeze dried berries are one of my favorite secret ingredients for flavoring/coloring baked goods, and I knew they would make the most gorgeous pink frosting. I crushed them into a powder and added it gradually to the frosting, decorating a few, and then adding more powder until the graduated color affect was accomplished. Aren’t they lovely? Plus the tangy raspberry flavor is perfect with the lemony cookies making this flavor combo one of my favorites.
In terms of sugar cookie cut outs, this recipe is my favorite. It’s from Bake at 350, the queen of sugar cookies, and I’ve made it several times. This version has lemon zest mixed into the sugar which releases all the oils and makes the lemon flavor shine. The dough requires no chilling ahead of time, and this whole project was done in just about an hour. Not bad right? (If you’re feeling ambitious today I get my freeze dried berries from Trader Joes, but I’ve ordered them in bulk from Amazon as well.) Happy Love Day!!
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks (salted) butter, cold & cut into small chunks
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened
- 12 tablespoons of butter, softened
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons freeze dried raspberry powder*
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- Preheat oven to 350F. In a small bowl stir the flour and baking powder together, set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl add the sugar and lemon zest. Use your hands to work the zest into the sugar, releasing the oils.
- Add the butter, and use an electric mixer to cream until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and lemon juice and mix until creamy and well mixed.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Dough will be crumbly.
- Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until the dough comes together.
- Roll dough to ¼ inch thickness and cut out using cookie cutters. Place cut out cookies on a lined cookie sheet 1-2 inches apart and freeze for 5 minutes before baking.
- Bake each batch 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then move to a cooling rack.
- Cream together the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add lemon juice and the powdered sugar, one cup at a time until fluffy and creamy.
- Add a sprinkle of the raspberry powder and decorate the first few cookies. Add a little more raspberry powder and decorate a few more, gradually adding more powder to each batch, creating a gradual darker pink.
- Cookies last up to a week stored in an air tight container in the fridge.
Sugar Cookie barely adapted from Bake at 350
Joanne Bruno says
These are SO fun and I love that the flavoring and color is au naturel! Also perfect for a certain someone’s first bday party coming up!!
Samantha says
Right on time! I was thinking of something to give to my boyfriend since he was in Greece last February and valentines was so like LDR for us, and luckily I found these sweet nibbling treats for him to celebrate Valentines (though it’s a little late).
Oftentimes, he is the one who’s giving him surprises during Vday but this time, I want something to give him just to express how much I really appreciate him. He’s going back on the 25th this month after away for some project. I’m excited!
Prepping up now to but some ingredients. Thanks again dear!
Keep smiling,
Samantha <3
Kara says
Hi there do you have any suggestions for blue colour would blueberries freeze dried work ?
Thank you
Jordan says
Hey! These cookies are so cute! Can they be frezzed? I am making them for a friends bridal shower and have a lot of baking to do the week of and was trying to do as much as I can beforehand. If I froze the cookies unfrosted do you think they would taste just as good?
thanks!
Audra says
You can make the actual cookies and then freeze them in an airtight tuperware. I’d wait to frost them until day of! :)
Toni says
Did you use salted butter for the frosting?
Audra says
I always use unsalted for frosting so I can add a pinch of salt if needed. If you only have salted though, I don’ think it’s a deal breaker!
Anna says
Would it be possible to do unsalted butter for the cookie dough?
Julia says
These look amazing! However, I am not able to get freeze-dried raspberries (I have a severe nut allergy, and everything I can find has allergy warnings). Is there a way I could make the frosting using fresh/frozen raspberries, or would I be better off just making a regular buttercream? Thanks!!
Zunaida says
Can you substitute freeze dried with frozen berries? I love the idea but don’t have access to freeze dried berries
Audra Fullerton says
Unfortunately no. Without them being freeze-dried you’d get a very runny icing. I’d just use food coloring to get the ombré effect otherwise!
Anna says
Would it be possible to do unsalted butter for the cookie dough?
Audra Fullerton says
Yes! Just add 1/2 tsp of salt :)
Jillian says
These were sooooo good. The last batch of icing didn’t get as dark as we wanted so we threw in some blackberries. Will definitely make these again!!!!
Amber says
The recipe says that they last a week in an air tight container. Is this frosted or unfrosted? I’m afraid the cookies will go soft with the frosting on them.
Jennifer says
Omg! Gorgeous and chic. Love these. Can’t wait to make them. I love the idea of using freeze dried berries as a food coloring. So clever! Thank you!
Nichole says
I’m planning on cooking these cookies on a cast iron pan. Should I modify the cooking temperature and time?
Leah says
Could you please tell me how much butter is in a stick? Maybe how many grams are in one? I am in Australia and I’ve never had a recipe call for a stick of butter so I don’t know how much it is.
Thank you
Serena says
113grams is 1 stick of butter :)
Leah says
Great, I’ll give that a go :D Thank you!