Soft and chewy strawberry kiss cookies flavored with freeze dried strawberries and topped with strawberry ice cream cone Hershey’s kisses.

strawberry cookies topped with strawberry kiss chocolate and white chocolate drizzle.

Table of Contents

My childhood was filled with classic peanut butter blossom cookies.Those sweet peanut butter cookies topped with a Hershey chocolate kiss in the center. It was one of my favorites because it was a treat within a treat! You get a cookie and a piece of chocolate together!

Same goes for these chocolate peanut butter cookies with mini Reese’s cup centers or peanut butter thumbprints with raspberry jam filling.

close up interior shot of strawberry kiss cookies.

Here’s another treat within a treat kind of cookie: strawberry cookies topped with strawberry kisses!

Strawberry Cookies

These strawberries cookies are naturally colored and flavored using freeze dried strawberries.

*If you want a richer or more vibrant pink color, go ahead and add a touch of pink food gel coloring.

Each cookie is topped with a chocolate kiss. I’m using the limited edition strawberry ice cream cone kiss photographed below.

open bag of hershey's kisses strawberry ice cream cone flavor.

This strawberry ice cream cone flavor is available during the spring and summer months. (I purchased mine from Target.)

If this flavor is unavailable, I suggest these other options:

Chocolate Dipped Strawberry (milk chocolate with strawberry centers!)
Flavors of the World Strawberry
Birthday Cake with Sprinkles
Milk Chocolate with Cherry Cordial Creme

overhead shot of strawberry sugar cookies ingredients.

It’s a straight forward sugar cookie recipe. You’ll need the usual cookie ingredients: flour, leavenings, butter, sugar, and egg. Freeze dried strawberries is the one standout ingredient you may not be familiar with.

What does “freeze dried” mean?

Freeze drying is process that removes nearly all the moisture from the food item.

The food item is placed on large racks inside of a vacuum chamber. The temperature inside the chamber is lowered below freezing. Then, the temperature is slowly raised.

Freeze drying removes about 98-99 percent of moisture content. Freeze dried fruits are different from dried fruits (like raisins, dried cranberries, or prunes). Dried fruits have a moisture content of 15-20%. Where as freeze dried fruits have 1-2% moisture. Do not use these two interchangeably!

naturally colored strawberry sugar cookie dough.

Freeze dried strawberries are available in various stages: whole strawberries, sliced strawberries, or ground (in powder form).

You can easily find freeze dried strawberries at your local supermarket (stocked alongside nuts and dried fruits). Trader Joe’s, Target, and Walmart carry a variety of freeze dried fruit options, as well.

Use a food processor to pulverize freeze dried sliced strawberries into a powder. That powder is mixed with butter and sugar to color and flavor the cookie dough.

scooped strawberry sugar cookie dough on parchment lined baking sheet.

Evenly portioned cookie dough is important! Aim to have similarly sized cookie portions. Similarly sized dough will bake at the same rate. Imagine baking a giant baseball size cookie dough beside a small golf-ball size cookie dough on the same baking sheet.

The golf-ball size cookie will obviously cook faster. The small cookie will dry out and burn long before the giant cookie is finished baking.

Use a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop (#40 scoop) or this OXO medium cookie scoop to evenly portion out the cookie dough.

rolled portioned strawberry cookie dough in granulated sugar.

strawberry sugar cookie dough balls on parchment lined baking sheet.

No need to chill or rest the cookie dough. Roll the portioned out cookie balls in granulated sugar. Then, bake!

For even more strawberry flavor, try rolling the dough in strawberry sugar. To make strawberry sugar, process some freeze dried strawberries with granulated sugar.

strawberry kiss cookies on black wire rack cooling.

Baking Notes

These strawberry kiss cookies require a tiny bit of prep before hand!

Unwrap 26 strawberry kisses. Place on a freeze safe container (such as bowl, cookie sheet, or cake pan). Store in the freezer while you prepare the other ingredients.

It’s important to freeze the chocolate kisses. This will prevent them from melting into a puddle in the oven.

Bake the cookie dough mounds for 10 minutes. By this stage, the cookie dough will have slightly flattened out. At this point, add a frozen strawberry kiss at the center of each cookie. Pop back in the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes.

strawberry kiss cookies with white chocolate drizzle and assorted colorful sprinkles.

BAKING TIPS: Key Takeaways

Freeze the unwrapped chocolate kisses to prevent them from melting in the oven.
Keep cookies the same size so they bake evenly.
Freeze dried fruit add flavor and color without adding moisture.
Use a food processor or spice grinder to pulverize freeze dried fruit into a powder.

Decorating the baked cookies are totally optional! No need to take this extra step. However, it does help to make the cookies more attractive.

I added a white chocolate drizzle and a pinch of colorful nonpareil sprinkles.The sprinkles can turn these from Valentine’s Day strawberry cookies to Easter themed cookies.

BAKING 101: What are nonpareil sprinkles?

Nonpareils are tiny ball-shaped sprinkles. They are sometimes called “round sprinkles.” These crunchy sprinkles were traditionally white colored. Nowadays, you can find them in just about any color!