Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

it's July which means strawberry season is upon us! while wandering through the byward market yesterday the vendors had booths of fresh ontario picked strawberries and the smell of them was incredible! I made these with grocery store strawberries but my next task is hand picking them at a farm and making jam!

anyway, these cookies were incredible. 

I used a martha stewart recipe that was simple to do and I had all the ingredients except the strawberries and whipping cream. I made them on thursday night and figured that the red and white could made them canada day cookies! they were gobbled up in no time.

you chop up the strawberries then soak them in lemon juice and sugar so they get soft and juicy. meanwhile you mix up your dry stuff and cut in the butter so it resembles the top of apple crumble. 

then you pour in the strawberries and drool over how delicious it all looks already! once you mix the strawberries in the dough comes together and is easy to scoop. it gets really moist from the excess juice of the strawberries and I was worried my cookies would run all across the pan but they actually held their shape really well.

scoop them onto a greased cookie sheet and let them bake for 24 minutes!

these are the finished product and let me tell you, there are no words for how delicious they are when they are still warm from the oven! even when you eat them at room temperature, they are just like cake. they aren't too heavy but they dont crumble, they were perfect. I was fearful that they may not turn out because cookies and fruit was a combination I had yet to try but these were great. I will recommend that everyone try them! I plan to use up the other quart of berries and make some to take to work! after the long weekend, I feel my co-workers deserve a treat!

I was on a roll on thursday evening. I also made layered taco dip which was simple! I didn't document the whole process but it's sour cream, cream cheese and taco seasoning mixed and put into a pie plate, topped with salsa, grated cheese, tomatoes and olives! you can add anything to the top like lettuce, guacamole, refried beans, onions, peppers, whatever! I just like to keep it simple.

leftover strawberries also called for a fresh batch of lemonade. this stuff was delicious and my new summer favourite. it may replace plain lemonade. fresh strawberries cut into every jug from now on? I think so!

I hope all my canadian readers had a fantastic canada day (I know I did, I saw william and kate!) and that my american readers enjoy their 4th of july tomorrow!

until next time, happy making!