Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

Oh you guys, it was good to be baking again! I hadn't baked in months and going to a Fourth of July party offered the perfect excuse to flex my baking muscle again. I wanted something that seemed super American and incorporated at least two of the three magic America colors: red, white and blue. I landed on Martha Stewart's Strawberry Shortcake Cookies.

First things first, I diced two cups of strawberries.

Put the strawberries in a bowl, then add a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice. Need something to do with the rest of those lemons? I spent ten minutes with my elbows resting on them; they're great exfoliators.

Then I added sugar to the strawberries and let them sit while I mixed up the flour mish mash.

I whisked together flour, baking soda, 7 tablespoons of sugar (7!!) and salt.

Then cut up six tablespoons of cold unsalted butter.

And added the butter with a pastry cutter.

Here's the magic sauce: heavy cream. Don't go...um...heavy with it, though.

The recipe calls for 2/3 cup of cream. You stir it in and a dough starts to form. I thought I knew better than Martha, though, and I added a little more. I think that was a mistake.

Once I was satisfied with the dough, I added the strawberries, which added more moisture.

Just to take it to the next level, I added some white chocolate chips.

Then I tried to use my ice cream scoop to scoop up perfect cookie-sized rounds of dough. This never works for me, so I gave up and used my hands.

I baked at 375 for 24 minutes and they probably could have cooked another 3 minutes, but they were delicious. I will say they were a bit too moist, so I'd go less heavy on the heavy cream. They were the perfect Fourth of July treat, however; totally fresh and sweet and tart and sugary all at the same time. Best of all? It didn't involve an electric mixer, so anyone could make these!