My strawberry cookies with cake mix recipe is easy and delicious. By starting with a box of white cake mix and adding Jello and freeze dried strawberries, you can make cookies that are full of strawberry flavor. In addition to the amazing flavor, these cookies are soft and chewy, just like a cookie should be. If you are looking for a simple no roll cookie recipe that would be perfect for Valentine’s Day, Easter, 4th of July, or even just because, keep reading!
Can You Make Cookies Out of Cake Mix?
Yes, you can! Although there is nothing wrong with making cookies from scratch, starting with a box of cake mix makes everything super easy. Instead of measuring out flour, sugar, and baking soda / powder, all you have to do is reach for a box of cake mix.
Also, a box of cake mix is like a blank canvas on which you can experiment. You already know about how much liquid and how many eggs to use, so by adding just a few extra ingredients, you can create any type of cookie you want.
In fact, Dorothy Kern of the food blog CrazyForCrust says you can make everything from red velvet, lemon Funfetti, chocolate cake, crinkle, and more cake mix cookies, all starting with just 3 ingredients. As you can see, when it comes to cake mix cookies, the sky’s the limit!
Can You Make Cookies with Strawberry Cake Mix?
Cake mix is a great base for making cookies, especially Lofthouse-style sugar cookies that everyone knows and loves. Chocolate or spice cake versions are popular as well.
Strawberry cookies are not as common, but they are some of the best. If you want, a using a box of strawberry cake mix makes the recipe easy. Since the strawberry flavor is in the mix, all you have to do is add eggs, oil or butter, mix, and then bake.
However, I prefer to start with a box of white cake mix so that I can control the flavor a bit more. If you are going to make strawberry cookies, they should be as good and flavorful as possible.
How to Add Strawberry Flavor to Cookies?
If want to make strawberry cookies, you are probably wondering how to add strawberry flavor to homemade cookies. Whether you make cookies from scratch or start with cake mix, there is one thing you have to keep in mind: moisture.
Why Not to Add Pureed Fruit to Cookie Batter
Similar to southern strawberry cake, a lot of people would add pureed strawberries to the cookie batter. Even though the cookies would definitely have the flavor of strawberries, they would not have the texture of cookies.
Too much moisture, such as the water in pureed berries, would make the baked cookies light and fluffy. The cookies would be like mini cakes–not soft and chewy like most cookies.
So, instead of adding pureed strawberries, you have to add strawberry flavor without adding moisture. The best ways to do that are with:
- Strawberry Jell-O
- Strawberry extract
- Freeze dried strawberries
Freeze Dried Strawberries in Cookies
These three ingredients have a ton of flavor but little no moisture, allowing you to add strawberry flavor to cookies and maintain the chewy texture. Most people probably won’t be surprised by the gelatin and extract, but the freeze dried strawberries may be a surprising ingredient.
Freeze dried strawberries are perfect for cookies because they have none of the water of fresh berries but all the flesh and fiber, making the cookies taste like you are truly eating strawberry-flavored cookies.
As you will see in my recipe, these cookies are easy to make and taste absolutely wonderful.
How to Make Strawberry Cookies with Cake Mix Recipe
Learning how to make strawberry cookies with cake mix is easy. This recipe is simple because there are just a few ingredients and there is no rolling out cookie dough. Even though it’s a bit tricky knowing how long to bake them–like a lot of cookies–if you follow my instructions, your cookies will turn out great.
Prepare the Cookie Batter
The first step in making strawberry cookies with cake mix recipe is making the batter. Since the box mix has the flour, sugar, and baking soda already measured out, half the steps in making the batter are already done for you.
I started with a box of white cake mix, so I had to add strawberry flavor. As previously explained, I needed to add strawberry flavor–but no moisture–if I wanted my cookies to have a chewy, cookie-like texture.
So, I added a box of strawberry Jell-O and strawberry extract, along with freeze dried strawberries. I then finished off the batter with eggs and vegetable oil. Even though I thought about adding a bit of red food coloring, but I decided not to. In my opinion, pink is a good color for something strawberry flavored. But, if you want red cookies, be sure to add some food coloring.
Shape the Cookies
After chilling the dough in the refrigerator, it was time to make the cookies. Like I said earlier, you do not have to roll out the cookie dough. Instead, I used a tablespoon measure to scoop out 1.5 to 2 tablespoon balls of dough.
It’s best for all the cookies to be about the same size so that they cook evenly. However, if a few are a bit bigger or smaller, that is fine because this recipe is forgiving. Honestly, I thought that these were the perfect size, so I encourage you to make these strawberry cookies the same size I did.
Slightly Underbake the Cookies So That They Are Chewy
Once the cookies were scooped out and on the baking sheet, it was time to bake them. Honestly, knowing how long to bake these strawberry cookies is probably the most difficult part of the recipe.
As a general rule, cookies should look a bit underdone when you take them out of the oven. Cookies continue baking a bit after you take them out of the oven, so it’s important to keep that in mind when judging doneness.
Since cookies continue cooking, they will actually be overcooked, dry, and hard if you leave them in the oven until the “look done.” Although your oven may be different, I think that 10 minutes at 350 F is best.
It’s time to take the strawberry cookies with cake mix out of the oven when they look undone. In fact, they may look a bit dry around the edges and wet in the center. If you take your cookies out of the oven at that point, they will turn out soft, chewy, and perfectly baked.
Recipe Review
Appearance: 10 / 10
These strawberry cake mix cookies were beautiful! Not only where they a nice shade of pink, they were also round. They had a lot of nooks and cranies on the top, reminding me of other cookies I had.
Taste: 10 / 10
For such a simple recipe, these cookies were delicious. The combination of strawberry Jell-O, extract, and freeze dried berries gave these cookies are very strong strawberry flavor. Honestly, I was surprised by how strong the taste was, and how it did not taste artificial.
If you make these strawberry cookies, I know that you will be surprised by just how much they taste like strawberries, especially considering that I did not add berry puree to the batter.
Texture: 10 / 10
I really liked the texture of these cookies. Because I limited the moisture as much as possible, these were definitely cookies, not little cakes. They were a bit crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, exactly what a lot of people would describe as the ideal cookie texture.
Even though these cookies didn’t last long, the ones that did make it a day or two did dry out and get hard. I think that the gelatin helped the cookies to retain a bit more moisture over time, but I am not 100% sure.
Ease: 10 / 10
My strawberry cookies with cake mix recipe was ridiculously easy. Since I started with a box of white cake mix, there was minimal measuring and pouring. The add-ins to improve the strawberry flavor were easy to work with as well–just open, pour, and mix in.
Although knowing how long to bake the cookies can be a bit challenging, if you follow my advice in this article, you won’t have any problems. Considering that this recipe is so easy to make, it is surprisingly delicious.
Possible Changes to the Recipe
Although my strawberry cookies were fantastic, I am thinking about experimenting with the recipe a bit in the future:
- Adding white chocolate chips – White chocolate covered strawberries are good, so adding white chocolate to these cookies should be good.
- Drizzling chocolate on cookies – Everyone loves chocolate-covered strawberries, so drizzling some chocolate on top of the cookies would be enough to give you the flavor of chocolate without overpowering the cookie itself.-white chocolate chips…better to use minis?
- Frosting the cookies – I think a cream cheese frosting, perhaps a strawberry cream cheese frosting, would be good. Or, maybe even just a simple powdered sugar glaze with some strawberry gelatin and / or freeze dried strawberries.
- Trying other versions with Cool Whip and Cream Cheese – I am not sure how those would turn out, but now I am curious.
As you can see, there are a lot of ways to switch up this recipe and try something new.
Strawberry Cookies with Cake Mix Recipe
Strawberry Cookies with Cake Mix Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 15.25 oz box white cake mix
- 1 3 oz box strawberry Jell-O (the small box)
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 0.6 oz freeze dried strawberries, crushed (17g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup oil
Instructions
- Crush freeze dried strawberries. I recommend putting them into a plastic bag and pounding them with a rolling pin.
- Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix to combine.
- Ideally, chill cookie dough for 30 minutes so that cookie do not spread as much.
- To shape the cookies, place 1.5 to 2 tablespoon scoops on a baking sheet
- Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes.
- Once out of the oven, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove and let cool completely.
YouTube Video
Be sure to watch my YouTube video tutorial:
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