Salted Strawberry Cookies (from scratch & naturally pink!)

I would be lying if I said these salted strawberry cookies weren’t inspired by my first child, the viral blueberry cookies. As soon as those blueberry cookies hit the internet, people were inundating me with questions on if it would work with other berries. And my first thought was, “sure? Why not?” Buuuuuut the reality was a different story.

This strawberry version of my most-famous-cookies took a few weeks of trial and error – plus a lot of time figuring out how to get the perfect strawberry flavor and cookie texture. So after a few months of trials and testing, the Salted Strawberry Cookie was born. And now she’s finally here!

This cookie is heavily inspired by the blueberry cookie – the process is simple, it’s still naturally vegan, it’s quick to whip up and it has a beautiful color – but this cookie has its own unique texture, flavor and flair.

And why salted, do you ask? Great question. These cookies are packed with nearly three times the berries as the blueberry cookies, and they lean towards the sweeter side. Sweet loves salty, and pink loves pink, so that’s why these sweet cookies got a salt pink Himalayan sea salt topping. It’s the perfect contrast, it’s fun, and it makes these berry cookies all the more special.

Kitchen tools I recommend for these vegan strawberry cookies

Before we get into the nitty gritty of the recipe, here are all the things you’ll need:

• A stand mixer or an electric mixer – this is super important for this particular recipe. This is because you need the high speed of an electric mixer to break up the berries and essentially “mash” them into the wet ingredients. This recipe won’t fully emulsify, but having a blender helps combine the wet ingredients during the process, making the berries yield their perfect pink color. Plus an electric mixer is the absolute best for aerating the butter in a cookie recipe. “Aerating” is where you cream together the butter and sugar and essentially whip in air, creating more lift in a cookie. If you are looking to get serious about baking, I highly recommend investing in an electric mixer! You can find my stand mixer and hand mixer recommendations linked here!
• Parchment paper – If you watch my TikToks (which you should, they are so fun!) you know I am a huge fan of parchment paper. It keeps your pans clean, it is the perfect way to create a non-stick surface, plus it is the best for cookie baking! A lot of times when you don’t have a nonstick pan, you need to spray or grease a cookie sheet to make sure nothing sticks, but even that greasing can mess with the cookies. To play it safe, I recommend stocking up on some parchment paper in the kitchen. You can even get it pre-cut to match the size of your baking sheet. Too easy!
• Cooling rack – A cooling rack is an essential piece of baking equipment if you ask me, and not just for this recipe! The reason is, when you take a hot pan out of the oven, the cookies on the pan continue to cook even when they are out of the oven’s heat. This is because of the residual heat from the pan. So when you move them to a cooling rack, you minimize this aspect of the baking process and have more control over how the cookie bakes. You can find my favorite cooling rack here.
• Kitchen scale – Ok, ok, I’m not going to rant about this any longer, but you know I love grams! For the best results in any cookie recipe, you gotta switch to measuring ingredients by weight (or at least try to!) I’ve listed out cups and grams in the recipe, but here’s a great (and affordable) kitchen scale if you think you are ready to invest.

Ingredients you need for these strawberry cookies

My one goal with this recipe is to make the ratios make sense – not just for the recipe, but for how you buy your ingredients. So I’m proud to say this recipe uses 1 cup of plant-based butter (which is usually the amount they sell in the store), and almost a whole carton of strawberries. You might have a few to snack on while you bake, but I really wanted to make sure the recipe used up all your ingredients in a smart and efficient way. Here is everything you’ll need for this salted strawberry cookie recipe:

• 3 cups fresh strawberries, 360 grams – In this recipe I opted for fresh berries. This is because they are more accessible to most shoppers, and I really wanted to take advantage of how sweet and tart fresh strawberries are in the summer! They are easy to mash up, retain their pinkness perfectly and really meld well into this recipe.
• 1 cup & 2 tbsp granulated sugar, 250 grams – I only use white sugar in this recipe because I find brown sugar tends to get in the way of the pink color and the light strawberry flavor. Plus white sugar mixes better with the butter and berries and tends to clump less due to the lower moisture content. A win in my books!
• 2 sticks plant-based butter, 228 grams – Now I know some people will ask, and yes, you can definitely use normal butter in this recipe. Just note that plant-based butters tend to have a lighter color and yield a more vibrant result, so if you use regular butter, your color might be a little different!
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, 390 grams – Here we are again with the grams! Now when I measure flour, I find that a 1/4 cup scoop ranges between 30 grams and 50 grams (it can really be all over the place!) So if you are using cups, I’d say that a lightly packed cup is about 130 grams of flour. Lightly packed means you scoop out the flour, shake off the excess and then carefully level off the top with a knife, no packing down in the cup needed! Of course, it will be more accurate if you measure with grams, so just keep that in mind as you make this recipe!
• 1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder – I need to make a whole post about the difference between baking powder and soda, I have so much to say! But for now, all you need to know is that this recipe NEEDS baking powder. Baking powder only needs liquid to form a reaction, whereas baking soda needs an acid. This recipe doesn’t have the acid needed for a reaction, so in order to get any lift in your cookie, you gotta go for the baking powder!
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt – this is a larger amount of salt than my normal recommendation of “just a pinch” – but don’t worry, this isn’t a salty recipe! In fact, this recipe is so sweet that it needs the extra touch of salt to offset the sweetness.
• 1 cup white chocolate chips – 180 grams, chopped – Not only does white chocolate look the best in these cookies, I think it tastes amazing. But I know not everyone is a white chocolate person, so you can always sub this with slivered almonds, pistachio bits, dried blueberries, flaxseeds or butterscotch chips, really anything!
• 1 tbsp flakey Himalayan pink salt, for topping – but this part, this part is necessary. Just trust me, a slight saltiness will totally change the cookie’s flavor profile!

Tips on mixing these salted strawberry cookies

These cookies start out like any other cookie recipe, but there is one big difference with the wet ingredients: we start with mixing in the macerated strawberries. Now, strawberries have a lot of moisture, so they don’t love the idea of emulsifying with the butter and sugar. And they most likely won’t, but that’s ok! That’s where the electric mixer comes in.

The most important thing to do is beat the wet ingredients for a prolonged time on medium speed, and make sure they are fully combined.

Mixing the wet ingredients for 4-5 minutes is doing three things:

1. It is mashing up the strawberries further, creating the color and the texture we want in the cookie.
2. The mixing is essentially forcing the berries to combine with the butter and sugar, making a cohesive mixture. Even though they will not fully emulsify, you will see that the berries get almost lodged in as the butter and sugar aerates together.
3. The prolonged mixing will beat in a bit more aeration to the butter+sugar+berry mixture, which is integral to a fluffy cookie!

So as you mix, you might think “is this too much, is this too aggressive?” and the answer is nah! Beat those wet ingredients as you see fit.

After mixing the wet ingredients, the hard part is over, and all you need to do is add in the dry ingredients!

WHY THIS COOKIE DOUGH LOOKS DIFFERENT THAN OTHER COOKIE DOUGHS

This cookie dough will be very soft and slack compared to other doughs, and that’s totally normal! Don’t panic, this is just because of the higher moisture content from the strawberries. Now the reason this dough can be a little more flexible than a normal cookie dough is because fruits and veg behave differently in baking. Fruits tend to hold structure more, so even though the dough feels too soft, it won’t act like a dough with too much moisture.

But a loose dough can be tricky to handle, so I definitely recommend chilling the dough for about 30 minutes before scooping it into cookie dough balls. I prefer to chill my dough in the fridge while the oven preheats to 375°F. You want it scoopable, but not rock hard.

Baking these salted strawberry cookies

When you get these cookies in the oven, know that they will puff up more than you anticipate. This is where the “oven smack” comes in.

After you bake the cookies at 375°F for 12-14 minutes or until they are golden brown on the bottoms, remove them from the oven and give the tray a few good smacks on the counter. This will help the cookies flatten, spread, and turn into the perfect cookie shape without losing any of their strawberry-shortcake texture!

SUBSTITUTIONS FOR ALLERGENS/SPECIAL DIETS

And I would never forget my allergen babes. If you are gluten intolerant, a 1:1 GF blend from the store is the perfect sub for this cookie. And to make sure that the recipe is fully vegan, be sure to use a vegan white chocolate chip substitution. I get my favorite brand from Pascha.

Looking for other cookie recipes?

Here are a few of my favorites – you just can’t miss with any of these:

And that’s it for these salted strawberry cookies!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you.