These bear strawberry sugar cookies are so cute, delicious, and fun to make with family + friends! The dough is flavored with freeze-dried strawberry powder, taking plain sugar cookies to a whole new level. Looking for an even cuter version? Try my Kirby strawberry cookies!
❤️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- They're cute AND easy! Despite these cookies being cute af, they're actually very simple to make. I mixed the dough by hand and used melted chocolates to add the faces—no need to whip up royal icing or anything!
- It's perfect for strawberry lovers. There's 3 tablespoons of freeze-dried strawberry powder, which add the perfect amount of real strawberry flavor to the dough.
- It's versatile. Since this is a basic sugar cookie dough, you could zhuzh it up however you like. For example, you could add half a cup of white chocolate chips or Golden Oreos for fun flavor & texture.
Looking for more easy cookie recipes? Try out my easy funfetti cookies!
Ingredients
To make cute strawberry cookies from scratch, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- Melted unsalted butter makes the cookie dough really easy to mix by hand.
- I like to use a mix of brown sugar and granulated sugar to create the perfect balance of flavor and chew. You can use light or dark brown sugar; dark brown sugar will just give you a deeper butterscotch flavor.
- Adding in both baking powder and baking soda gives us the exact texture and rise we’re aiming for!
- Freeze-dried strawberry powder adds all the strawberry flavor we'll need in this recipe. It's not pigmented enough to make the cookies pink, so I highly recommend adding a few drops of pink food coloring.
- You can use either vanilla extract or vanilla paste (1:1) in this recipe.
- To add the bear faces, I used white and milk/dark chocolate melting chips. Alternatively, you can use chocolate wafers or candy melts.
- I dyed some melted white chocolate pink for the blush. It's best to use oil-based food coloring so the chocolate doesn't split. If you only have regular food coloring and the chocolate splits, you can stir in a little bit of neutral oil (vegetable, canola) until it comes back together.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tip
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
How to Make Cute Bear Strawberry Cookies
Step 1: Mix together melted butter with brown and granulated sugars until fully combined.
Step 2: Add in egg, vanilla, freeze-dried strawberry powder, and a bit of pink food coloring. Stir until smooth.
Step 3: Stir in dry ingredients until no dry spots remain. Cover and chill doughs for 30 minutes.
Step 4: Use a cookie scoop (2-3 tablespoon capacity) to gather dough. Roll in sugar and place on lined baking sheet. Add ½ teaspoon dough balls for each ear. Place bears 3-4 inches apart, and bake at 350°F/177°C for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are set and middles look mostly cooked through. Decorate with melted chocolates and enjoy!
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
Storage
If you’d like to make these cute strawberry sugar cookies ahead of time, you can freeze raw cookie dough balls for up to 3 months. Roll frozen balls in sugar right before baking, making sure to add 2-3 minutes to the baking time.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze cookie dough balls for up to a year and bake as usual—just add a couple more minutes to the baking time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.
🍪 More Cookie Recipes
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Thank you so much! -Bianca ❤️
📖 Recipe & Video
Bear Strawberry Sugar Cookies
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Equipment
- large mixing bowl
- Medium cookie scoop 2-3 tablespoon capacity
- Parchment Paper
- Piping bag or toothpick or cookie scribe for adding decorations
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (55 g) light brown sugar packed
- 3 tablespoons (18 g) freeze dried strawberry powder
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) vanilla paste or extract
- 1 (1) egg
- pink food coloring
For rolling:
- 4 tablespoons (48 g) granulated sugar
Decoration for face:
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) milk or dark chocolate melted
- 3 tablespoons (44.36 g) white chocolate melted
- oil-based food coloring pink or red, see steps
Instructions
For the strawberry cookie dough:
- In a large mixing bowl, use silicone spatula to mix melted ½ cup unsalted butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, and ¼ cup light brown sugar until smooth.
- Mix in 3 tablespoons freeze dried strawberry powder, 1 egg and 1 tablespoon vanilla, and pink food coloring until smooth.
- Add in all of the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt. Mix until no dry spots remain. Add more pink food coloring as needed.
- Cover and chill dough in fridge for 20-30 minutes. This will let the flour hydrate and let the butter cool, yielding chewier cookies. The dough will also be easier to work with. 🙂
Scoop & bake bears:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, add 4 tablespoons granulated sugar for rolling the dough.
- Use medium cookie dough scoop to gather dough (about 2-3 tablespoons each). Shape into a ball and roll in granulated sugar. Place onto lined baking tray.
- For the ears, take about 1 teaspoon of dough, and split it into two equally sized balls. Roll into sugar and place ears on top of each dough ball. Repeat for about 10-12 cookies, spacing them 3-4 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are set and middles are mostly baked through.Tip: For more evenly shaped bears, use a rubber spatula, spoon, or knife to gently push the edges of the cookie to your liking! Make sure to do this while the cookies are fresh out of the oven and warm.
- Let cool on pan for about 5-10 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire rack. Let cool completely.
For the bear faces:
- You can a piping bag, toothpick, or cookie scribe to add on the details. I used a toothpick.
- Use melted white chocolate for the snouts and ears.
- Use melted milk or dark chocolate to add the noses and eyes.
- Add oil-based pink/red food coloring to the remaining melted white chocolate. If you don't have oil-based food coloring, then the chocolate will seize/become lumpy. To counter this, stir in a teaspoon of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) at a time, until it becomes smooth again. Use this to add the blush.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it’s more accurate than measuring by volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- Room temperature: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Freezing instructions: Store cooled cookies in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. You can also freeze raw cookie dough balls for up to 3 months and bake as usual; just add a few minutes to the baking time.
- Reheating instructions: Allow frozen cookies to thaw at room temperature for about 10 minutes. Or, reheat in the microwave at 10-second intervals.
Gabi says
Very nice and moist 🙂
Gabi says
Very moist and delicious 🙂
I had to bake it in multiple batches though because I had a mini oven, so it took longer for me 😭
Sydney E says
Made these for my 8 year old niece and they were a big hit with the whole family! I added a little extra strawberry powder and found the cookies to be not overly sweet.
Bianca Fernandez says
Hi Sydney!! Thank you for your comment. That's so sweet~ I'm glad to hear everyone enjoyed them!
Amy says
Made these cookies for Valentine’s day and my boyfriend loved them (I also snuck some for myself as well). Because the recipe is super easy to follow and a lot of the ingredients I had at home already, I eventually made 2 more batches of cookies to give to friends and family. Very addicting and tasty!
Emma Louise says
Mine turned out soo cute!! I used raspberry powder instead of strawberry and felt like I didn’t even need to add any extra food coloring, I also used just the raspberry powder to color the white chocolate for the cheeks and it turned out great!