Berry Crinkle Cookies are soft, cake-y cookies with a crackly top. They have a robust flavor that come from freeze-dried strawberries and raspberries. They are delicious to eat and even beautiful as a gift. 
Crinkle cookies have always been super illusive to me. How do they crinkle? Why do they crinkle? Are they good? Would Berry Crinkle Cookies be delicious?
I have to say, they’ve always looked good to me. But how would they taste, I would question? The answer is…kinda good! I mean the chocolate ones are delicious. Like chocolate cake-y cookies (these look delightful!). What could be bad about them? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
I’ve always wanted to make them around the holidays but have never gotten around to it. The time is now!
But the internet has a lot of chocolate crinkle cookies and I try and add value to this world, you know. So if I was going to make my own version, I wanted it to be special, unique, and cute. Enter: berry crinkle cookie.
What are Crinkle Cookies?
Crinkle Cookies have a fudge-y, cake-like texture. Most of the time these types of cookies are flavored with chocolate, almost mimicking brownies. My version uses freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries though–in order to deliver a powerful berry punch.
These would be amazing for around the holidays, too, given their red color and all. And even in the summer when you want everything to be berry-infused.
How the Berry Flavor Implemented In These Crinkle Cookies!
I implemented the berry flavor in these like how I always do—with freeze-dried strawberries and raspberries. You could actually do these with ALL strawberries or ALL raspberries. I did a mix. It’s totally up to you.
There is no way to even think of doing this with fresh raspberries or strawberries given how much water those two things hold. Using freeze-dried berries give you all of the flavor but without the baggage of moisture.
Grind up freeze-dried berries in a blender with sugar; you’ll end up with a powder-type texture. And then it’s normal from here on out.
Oil vs. Butter?
What we did find from our numerous tests that oil worked way better than butter in these types of cookies. Butter created steam, resulting in a cookie with wet powdered sugar on the outside. It made sense once we figured that out but for the first few rounds we were like, “why is the powdered sugar wet?!?!” Duh.
And you know, I thought they would taste less delicious without the butter but they tasted exactly the same–I think because the berry flavor is so profound.
They’re a wonderful berry flavor that really comes through and the texture is soft and cakey–truly tasty!
These Berry Crinkle Cookies are the best!
xoxo,
Adrianna
How to Make Berry Crinkle Cookies
- Grind the freeze-dried berries and sugar in the blender.
- Mix together all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Beat the berry sugar and oil in a stand mixer. Until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one-by-one to the mixer. Make sure to wait until each one combines.
- Add the coloring gel and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture. Mix until no flour speckles appear.
- Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion the cookies. Roll into balls.
- Roll the balls in the sifted powdered sugar.
- Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, until they appear crackly and puffed up.
Berry Crinkle Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries (or a combo of the both)
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup neutral oil (avocado oil or vegetable oil)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 drop fuschia food coloring gel (optional)
- 4 drops red food coloring gel
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with a sheet of parchment and set aside.
- To a blender, add the sugar and freeze-dried strawberries/raspberries (if using a combination of the two). Blend until the freeze-dried berries are ground up, a few teeny bits of freeze-dried strawberries are ok.
- To the medium bowl, add the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk together until combined.
- To the bowl of a stand-up mixer (or you could use a large bowl with an electric- hand mixer), add the sugar/strawberry mixture and oil. Beat until light and sort of fluffy, about 1 minute. With the machine running on low speed, add one egg at a time. And then add the vanilla extract, fuchsia food coloring gel and red food coloring gel. Mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture and mix just until no flour speckles appear and the dough is cohesive, about 30 seconds to a minute.
- Sift the powdered sugar into a small to medium bowl. This will smooth out any pesky lumps that are in the powdered sugar.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop out balls of dough, rolling them in between your palms until balls form. Roll them in the sifted powdered sugar.
- The powdered sugar should be on there pretty thick. I think it’s our instinct to brush off the excess powdered sugar but leave it on! Transfer the dough ball to the lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies about 2 inches a part. They don’t spread very much so you can fit about 8 per baking sheet.
- Transfer the first baking sheet to the oven to bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, until they appear crackily and puffed up. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheets for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. You’ll notice that they’ll fall a bit as they cool—this is good!Serve with milk or coffee.
Notes
Equipment
Nutrition
Looking for more cookie recipes? Here are some of my favorites:
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Strawberry and Cream Cookies
- Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Alfajores
- Chewy Chai Masala Snickerdoodles
- Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies
8 ounces
Hi! I followed the recipe but I did not get to baking it because the dough turned out like extremely sticky slime that I had to throw away. 🙁 Any idea what I might have done wrong?
My husband just called these his favorite Christmas cookies and I’m pissed tbh, I make great cookies every year and now they’re topped by the newcomer! Followed the recipe to a T minus the gel food coloring – only had liquid and 6 drops ain’t enough so they turn a berry natural mauve as stated. Fun fact – the recipe calls for exactly how many freeze dried strawberries you get in the little packet from Trader Joe’s in the dried fruit section. The powdered sugar is a little bit much, I do hate to put excess in the trash but know you need plenty to roll them, you might be able to get away with 1/3 cup sifted vs the recipe’s 1/2c. In all they have that tangy berry flavor and classic Christmas crinkle, I’m so glad I made them and am not traveling this year so I can eat them all (or whatever my husband leaves for me).
Do you know the weight of the freeze-dried strawberries/raspberries? I have two bags (1.2 oz or 34g) from Trader Joes. Some of them are crushed in the bag. So, I was trying to estimate if I had purchased enough. Thanks.
Hi! These look amazing! Could I swap out some of the flour for cocoa powder for a bit of chocolate flavor? If so, how much would you suggest?
i wouldn’t suggest doing this. i only test the recipes the way you see here so not sure if that’ll work!
Do you have any idea how much powder your freeze-dried berries yielded? I bought pre-pulverized powder and am trying to use it up! Thanks 🙂
Hmm…sorry not sure. I didn’t measure it after.
8 ounces
These came out great! Might just add a little more food coloring next time. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Form your friendly neighborhood copy editor: I think you mean, “elusive” up there at the top. Can’t wait to try these!
To Spidey the “copy editor”: I think you mean “from”, not “form”.
These are AWESOME! I used all strawberry and they were SO good! I have a 3yo and she loves to bake with me — these were perfect! The use of oil instead of butter allowed us to take our time and She especially loved the scooping/rolling/powder-coating bit ❤
I just made these and I think step 3 is missing add baking powder. Only reading the ingredients list I realized I missed adding that ingredient. They came out beautiful and tasted great so can wait to make it again!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
Oh dang! Sorry about that! I guess they don’t really need it lol So glad you loved them 🙂
Where does the baking powder go?
Sorry about that! It goes with the rest of the dry ingredients. I just added it.:)
Thank you….I have freeze dried strawberries and love using them in baking. I used them in an oatmeal, white chocolate chip cookie which was soooo addictive. These crinkle cookies are perfect for a Valentine treat! So festive. You are awesome.
Ahh yes, they’re delicious in granola and cereal! 🙂
These look DELICIOUS! Love the berry twist to them! I see a ton of crinkle cookies out on the internet, so it’s nice seeing one with an extra oomph of deliciousness!