Strawberry Basil Lemon Cookies

A refreshing and aromatic sugar cookie—soft, sweet, and summery

The best party drink is not a White Claw or a Corona—it’s a strawberry basil lemonade. Well, maybe I’m not the most credible source (I don’t party or drink), but you’ll just have to trust me with this one. Earlier this year, my friend served strawberry basil lemonade at our Galentine’s party. Using fresh strawberries, lemon juice, and finely chopped basil, it was sweet, tart, and incredibly refreshing. It seems simple, but I’d never had anything like it before. I was truly blown away.

These strawberry basil lemon cookies are inspired by my lovely friend! With both freeze dried strawberries and strawberry jam, they emulate the tartness of the fresh strawberries. By rubbing in chopped basil and lemon zest, this recipe extracts the flavor components that made her lemonade truly special. They’re soft, sweet, and a little zingy—the perfect refreshing treat for the summer. What’s more, the freeze dried strawberries and basil adorn the crumb with these stunning pink and green speckles!

This post is a very special one in honor of my friend, who’s actually also the one who introduced me to Substack. Without her, I wouldn’t have found this warm community that fuels my creativity and follows along my culinary adventures. I wouldn’t be here writing this now, and you wouldn’t be here reading my recipe. So thank you, Alyssa. And now, onto the recipe!

Ingredients:

Cookie dough:

• 113g unsalted butter (softened)

• 140g sugar

• Zest of 1 lemon

• 20 basil leaves (~ ¼ cup finely chopped)

• 1 large egg yolk

• ½ tsp vanilla extract

• 1 tbsp strawberry jam

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 160g all purpose flour

• ⅓ cup freeze dried strawberries (~ 2 tbsp blended, set rest aside)

Sugar coating:

• 3 tbsp sugar

• leftover crushed freeze dried strawberries

Lemon icing:

• 3 tbsp icing sugar

• ¾ tsp lemon juice

• More crushed freeze dried strawberries bits

Procedure:

1. Using a food processor, blend up the freeze dried strawberries into a fine powder. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the powder for the dough, and cover and set aside the rest.

2. In a medium bowl, add your white sugar. Wash and thoroughly dry 20 basil leaves. Chop them up into finely sized pieces; you should end up with around ¼ cup of minced leaves. Add the minced leaves and the zest of 1 lemon into the medium bowl with the sugar. Using your fingers, rub the leaves and lemon zest into the sugar to infuse the sugar with the herb-citrus flavors.

3. In a large bowl, use a stand or hand mixer to cream together your softened butter and infused sugar mixture until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolk, vanilla extract, strawberry jam, and mix until well combined. Stir in the baking powder and salt until evenly incorporated. Add in the all purpose flour and the 2 tbsp reserved freeze dried strawberry powder. Fold using a spatula until just combined.

4. Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

5. After chilling, preheat your oven to 350^o.F. In a small bowl, prepare the sugar coating by mixing together 3 tbsp sugar and your leftover freeze dried strawberry powder. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the dough into 14 evenly sized balls and roll them into the sugar-strawberry mixture to coat.

6. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges look set and the center is slightly puffed. Do not over bake! After baking, allow the cookies to rest on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool.

7. After the cookies have cooled down, prepare the lemon icing by mixing together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. Using a spoon, drizzle the icing on ⅓ of the cookie. Before the icing hardens, sprinkle on some more crushed freeze dried strawberries. Plate these on your best summer platter and serve with a glass of cold strawberry lemonade!

Basil-lemon infused sugar

The final dough!

Additional Notes:

• Lemon sugar: It is critical to rub in the sugar and basil leaves into the sugar. Rubbing them with your fingers ensures all the wonderful juices are extracted; if this step is skipped, the basil and lemon flavors will not come through! If using basil, this will result in a slightly, light green dough. So cute!

• Basil vs Mint: Which to use? It all comes down to personal preference and what is available to you. Initially, I actually tested this recipe with mint because that was what I had in my garden. I personally prefer the flavor of the basil; it’s more mild than the mint, which I think complements the sharp lemon flavor. However, both are delicious and work perfectly fine. If you even have other herbs on hand that you’d like to try, that’d be wonderful as well. I would love to hear about the results!

• Icing: Feel free to add more or less sugar or lemon juice to reach your desired icing consistency. I like my icing to be pretty thick and opaque as it dries nicer this way, so I tend to add more sugar.

If you have to turn your oven on in this summer heat for any treat, have it be these cookies. You certainly will not regret!