Pink lemonade cookies are lemony sugar cookies topped with a tart strawberry lemon glaze ~ like little bursts of sunshine on a plate!
Pink lemonade cookies topped with a sweet tart strawberry lemon glaze are a delicious nod to one of my favorite refreshing thirst quenchers. The soft butter cookies have a mellow lemon flavor popped with prettiest pink flavor-bomb of a glaze.
I do think it’s essential to have a few great spring and summer-specific cookies in my arsenal for warm weather birthdays, cookouts, pool parties, and picnics. (This recipe is a twist on my popular lemon cookies.) Plus you never know when the baking urge will strike!
what you’ll need for pink lemonade cookies
This is basically a glazed lemon sugar cookie with a pop of berry pink.
- butter
- flour
- powdered sugar
- lemon juice + zest
- egg yolk
- cornstarch
- freeze dried strawberries or strawberry powder
freeze dried strawberries
This is what puts the ‘pink‘ in pink lemonade cookies! Look for freeze dried fruits in the dried fruit section of your supermarket (also Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.) You can easily grind the fruit into a fine powder with a spice grinder. If you find already ground dried strawberry powder, you can use that as well.
Mix freeze dried strawberry powder into drinks, frostings, batters, yogurt and more!
making the cookies
This pink lemonade cookie dough is a soft, workable dough. It’s nice and lemony, too, as I rolled it out I could really smell that lemon zest.
This recipe calls for a short chilling period after you’ve formed the dough into a flat disk. This helps firm up the butter for a better cookie texture. *An alternative method that I used with my Homemade Thin Mints Recipe is to roll out the dough first between two sheets of parchment, and then refrigerate the sheet of dough before cutting out your cookies.
Could you turn this into a slice and bake recipe? Sure, just form the dough into a log and chill well before slicing and baking. Slice and bake cookies are normally thicker than roll out cookies, so the baking time will be a little longer.
the pink lemonade glaze
This is a simple lemon glaze made with powdered sugar and lemon juice, flavored and colored with freeze dried strawberry powder. It’s the glaze that really gives you that tangy lemony pop of flavor in your cookies.
You can dunk the cookies headfirst into the glaze, or simple spread it over them with a small spoon. Be sure to give your pink lemonade cookies time to set up and dry completely before storing or serving.
pink lemonade cookie variations
Add some yellow sprinkles to the glaze while it’s still wet.
You could add the strawberry powder to the cookie dough as well. Start with a tablespoon.
Experiment with other freeze dried fruit like raspberries or blueberries.
Use different shaped cookie cutters like flowers or butterflies for a cute effect.
Use this same concept with a glazed lemon bread or lemon cake recipe.
Want to use fresh strawberries instead of freeze dried? See my Strawberry Lemon Blondies glaze.
more spring cookies
Pink Lemonade Cookies
Equipment
- baking sheets and parchment paper
- 2 inch cookie or biscuit cutter
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter at room temperature. Be sure your butter is soft, the dough will not come together with cold butter.
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, do not sift before measuring.
- lemon zest from one lemon
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
glaze
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder*
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice, or more if needed
Instructions
- Cream the soft butter, lemon zest, and powdered sugar well, for at least 2-3 minutes, scraping down the bowl a couple of times. This aerates the dough for a lighter cookie.
- Blend in the lemon juice and egg yolk.
- Turn the mixer to low and blend in the flour and cornstarch until the dough comes together and there is no dry flour left. It will be soft and sticky.
- Form the soft dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap, smoothing out the surface as you wrap it.
- Put the dough in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 hours or in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up.
- Preheat oven the 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll out the dough to 1/4 in thickness on a lightly floured surface. If your dough is super cold it will soften as it sits at room temperature.
- Cut into rounds with a small 2 inch cookie cutter and place on a parchment lined baking sheets, one inch apart. If your dough has warmed up you may want to chill the cookies for 15-30 minutes before baking. I do a test cookie first to evaluate. If it doesn't spread, you're good to go.
- Bake for 11 minutes until set. The cookies will still be pale.
- I let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring to a rack to cool completely before glazing. Note: the cookies will be delicate when warm, but will firm up as they cool.
to make the glaze
- Stir together the sugar, strawberry powder and lemon juice until smooth and glossy. I don't find it necessary to use sifted sugar: if you have a few lumps in your glaze let it sit for a few minutes and stir again. Any small lumps should dissolve on their own. Note: if you want to thin your glaze just add a bit more lemon juice. To thicken it, add more sugar.
- Take each cooled cookie and dip headfirst straight down into the glaze, just touching all parts of the surface to the glaze. Lift the cookie straight up and let the excess glaze drip off. Turn the cookie upright and set on a rack. Note: if you have any trouble dunking the cookies you can also just spoon a small amount of glaze onto each cookie and spread it out gently to the edges.
- Allow the glaze to set up before eating or storing your pink lemonade cookies.
- Cookies will remain fresh for several days at room temperature, and can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Made these delicious cookies. They were very good and did actually taste like pink lemonade.
Could you confirm the intended amount of lemon juice for the glaze, please? When the recipe is shown in English units, it says 4 tablespoons — but when I click over to metric units, it switches to 2 tablespoons. I also looked at your lemon cookie recipe that you referenced, and it uses 2 tablespoons lemon juice for 1 cup powdered sugar….so for this glaze recipe of 1.5 cups powdered sugar, I might expect it to be 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I’m unsure whether the glaze in this recipe is intended to use 2, 3, or 4 tablespoons of lemon juice. 🙂
Hi Joan, I’ll correct that glitch in the metric measurements, thanks for pointing it out. I used 4 tablespoons but with glaze you’ll want to add the liquid slowly. You may need more or less lemon juice just depending on your sugar, and how you measure it. 4 tablespoons is about 6o grams. I recommend doing a test cookie to see how your glaze behaves, then you can thin it or thicken it as necessary.
I can’t wait to try the recipe! What brand of cookie cutter do you use?
I’m not sure what brand mine are, but they are this type, here’s an Amazon link.
I don’t see the Amazon link.
To the freeze dried strawberries? The link is in green, in the name “Freeze Dried Strawberries” I’ll leave it here, too.