Strawberries and Cream Sourdough Cookies with White Chocolate and Marshmallows
When I set out to create a sourdough strawberries and cream cookies recipe, I wanted them to have an intensely bright strawberry flavor with creamy, indulgent bites. Instead of vanilla extract, I opted for lemon extract to enhance the tartness of the freeze-dried strawberries, making their flavor pop. For an extra layer of creaminess, I folded in mini white chocolate chips and marshmallows, and wow! These might be my new favorite springtime cookies.
Why Use Freeze-Dried Strawberries?
You must use freeze-dried or dehydrated strawberries to achieve that burst of authentic strawberry flavor.
🥄 Fresh strawberries won’t work; they release too much moisture, making the dough wet and difficult to bake.
🥄 Freeze-dried strawberries provide intense flavor without adding moisture, making them the perfect mix-in.
Why Use Sourdough Discard in Strawberries and Cream Cookies?
Making cookies with sourdough discard isn’t just about adding flavor, it’s about how you mix the ingredients. The order in which you incorporate them significantly affects the texture of your cookies.
The most important rule is to mix the sourdough discard with the wet ingredients and sugar before adding the dry ingredients. This ensures proper hydration and distribution throughout the dough.
This recipe can be made with either an active sourdough starter or discard. If you’re using discard, ensure it’s at room temperature for the best results.
Can I Freeze the Dough?
Absolutely! Here’s how I like to do it:
- When you’re ready to bake frozen cookie dough, place the frozen dough balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake as usual, no need to thaw! (you just might need to leave them in the over 3 extra minutes)
- Refrigerate the dough overnight before shaping it into cookie dough balls.
- This recipe, at 1x batch size, makes about 10 cookies. So I usually bake four and freeze the rest.
How to Mix Sourdough Strawberries and Cream Cookies
- Start by creaming the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This creates a tender cookie texture. Melted, room-temperature butter works best.
- The sourdough discard acts as an egg replacement, adding moisture and a slight tang. Mix it into the butter-sugar mixture, lemon juice, and lemon extract for extra flavor depth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add this mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until just combined. Avoid overmixing, as it can lead to tough cookies.
- Gently fold in the freeze-dried strawberries, white chocolate chips, and marshmallows. These add the signature strawberries and cream flavor to every bite.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes before baking. This step is crucial! Chilling helps the butter firm up, preventing the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
Why Should You Chill Cookie Dough?
Chilling the dough isn’t just about convenience. It hugely impacts texture. When cookie dough rests in the fridge:
- butter solidifies, resulting in a thicker cookie.
- flour absorbs moisture, giving a more tender bite.
- sourdough discard has time to ferment, making the cookies easier to digest.
Cover and chill the dough overnight (or up to 48 hours) for the best results.
Can I ferment The Dough Overnight?
Yes! A long fermentation in the fridge makes these cookies even better. The dough can stay refrigerated for up to 2 days before baking (or freezing). Fermenting overnight enhances the flavor and improves digestibility, a major plus when baking with sourdough.
More Sourdough Cookie Recipes
- Sourdough Lemon Blueberry Cookies (Blueberry Muffin Cookies)
- Soft and Chewy Sourdough Peanut Butter Cookies
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pumpkin and Pecans
Sourdough Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
These are the best strawberries and cream cookies! Made with berries, chocolate chips, and marshmallows for the most fantastic texture and flavor.
- Prep: 15 minutes
- Cook: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
- 170 g all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 116 g salted butter, melted
- 150 g sugar
- 130 g sourdough starter, room temp
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp lemon extract
- 1/2 cup mini white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
- 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries
Instructions
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt) in a bowl.
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature but melted. Add the butter, sugar, lemon extract, lemon juice, and sourdough starter to a large bowl. Combine with a whisk or hand mixer until even.
- Fold the combined dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Stir until well combined.
- Add the chocolate chips, dried strawberries, and marshmallows.
- Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes (or covered, overnight)
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of cookie dough and shape into balls.
- Preheat the oven to 350° and place the cookie dough balls about two to three inches apart on the lined cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Your cookies may be puffy and some marshmallow may ooze out the sides, but it’s fine, do not panic, proceed to the next step.
- While the cookies are still hot, lift the parchment paper off the pan about a foot above the pan and drop it onto the pan. This will flatten the cookies to the perfect texture. Because of the marshmallows, you may need to use a butter knife to fix the shape of the cookies to be more circular.
- Just pat the cookies around the side with a butter knife to make them a circular shape.
- I topped them with some extra crumbled freeze-dried strawberries to make them cute!
- Let them sit on the cookie sheet until they are completely cool.
Notes
- PLEASE DO NOT use homemade gelatin marshmallows in this recipe. Homemade marshmallows are not suited for baking because gelatin dissolves at baking temperatures. I used Dandies brand mini marshmallows.
These are amazing! I love all your recipes! Thanks so much for sharing them ♥️ what is the best way to store these cookies?
After they are baked, I store them in a glass Tupperware container.