Learn how to make strawberry crunch to use as decoration for cakes, cupcakes, or on top of your favorite ice cream. Shortbread cookies, freeze-dried strawberries, and melted butter are all you need, but adding a little strawberry emulsion gives it that authentic flavor.
These strawberry shortcake crumbles will remind you of the classic strawberry shortcake ice cream bars you got from the ice cream truck as a kid. The best part was always the vanilla and strawberry crunchies on the outside of the bar, so why not have a whole bowl of them?!
Table of contents
Strawberry Crunch Ingredients
Vanilla shortbread cookies have a high butter content and stay crunchy while they stick to the cake. Many other recipes use golden Oreos and vanilla pudding mix, but I like the flavor of shortbread or vanilla wafers. I use Keebler because they're easy to buy at the grocery store, but you can use your preferred brand of cookies. Or you can make your own shortbread cookies, just leave the lemon out of my recipe.
Freeze-dried strawberries work best for this recipe, but you can always use strawberry jello if you can't find any.
Strawberry emulsion is not required for this recipe but it adds a sweet strawberry flavor. You can also use strawberry puree or strawberry extract. I like LorAnn oil's strawberry emulsion.
How to Make Strawberry Crunch
- First, add the vanilla shortbread cookies to a food processor and chop them until they're broken into very small crumbs. If you don't have a mixer, you can cut them up with a knife or put them in a Ziploc bag and grind them with a rolling pin or mallet. Don't worry if your crumbs aren't all uniform, but break up the bigger pieces with your hands.
- Then add the strawberry emulsion to the cookies and blend until it's combined. If you don't have emulsion, you can skip this step or use strawberry extract.
- Transfer the mixture to a separate large mixing bowl. The strawberries and cookies blend differently, so I do not recommend mixing them in the blender all at once.
- Add the freeze-dried strawberries to a food processor and chop them until they're broken into very small crumbs. Add the strawberries to the bowl with the cookie crumbs. Pro-Tip: Blend your freeze-dried strawberries straight from the bag and work quickly, as they tend to absorb moisture in the air and will become gummy in your food processor.
- Next, add the melted butter to the large bowl and stir with a whisk to combine the mixture and break up any big crumbs. That's it!
- Store the strawberry crunch topping in a large Ziploc bag or an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for about up to a month, however, they're best used within 1 week.
How to Use Strawberry Crunch
- Add it as a topping to strawberry ice cream
- Stir it into yogurt
- Strawberry hot chocolate bombs with white chocolate
- Roll it onto a vanilla ice cream sandwich
- Decorate the sides of a cake
- Sprinkle it on top of cupcakes
My favorite way to use strawberry crunch is with my homemade strawberry crunch cake. Use a doctored box cake mix to create two delicious white cake layers, and add a little bit of strawberry reduction to make a strawberry layer for the middle. I like using my easy buttercream recipe, but whipped cream or cream cheese frosting would also be delicious. Push the strawberry crumble on the sides and the top of the cake to make an irresistible summer treat.
FAQ
If your strawberry crunch crumbles are sticky, you either added too much butter, or it wasn't sealed and absorbed some of the moisture in the air. Spread it onto a baking sheet and bake it at 350°F for 5 minutes to dry it out.
Freeze-dried strawberries will make your life a lot easier than fresh strawberries for this recipe. If you only have fresh berries, you can dry them yourself.
Strawberry Crunch, or Strawberry Shortcake Crumble, is a mixture of ground-up shortbread cookies, freeze-dried strawberries, and butter. This nostalgic topping is perfect when sprinkled over ice cream, mixed into yogurt, or used to decorate cakes and cupcakes.
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Moist & fluffy vanilla cupcake
Recipe
Equipment
- Food processor or knife
Ingredients
- 1 ounce freeze-dried strawberries (1 cup)
- 8 ounces shortbread cookies (2 ½ cups)
- ½ teaspoon strawberry emulsion optional
- ¼ cup melted unsalted butter (4 Tbsp)
Instructions
- First, add the vanilla shortbread cookies to a food processor and chop them until they're broken into very small crumbs. If you don't have a mixer, you can cut them up with a knife or put them in a Ziploc bag and grind them with a rolling pin or mallet. Don't worry if your crumbs aren't all uniform, but break up the bigger pieces with your hands.
- Then add the strawberry emulsion to the cookies and blend until it's combined. If you don't have emulsion, you can skip this step or use strawberry extract.
- Transfer the mixture to a separate large mixing bowl. The strawberries and cookies blend differently, so I do not recommend mixing them in the blender all at once.
- Add the freeze-dried strawberries to a food processor and chop them until they're broken into very small crumbs. Add the strawberries to the bowl with the cookie crumbs. Pro-Tip: Blend your freeze-dried strawberries straight from the bag and work quickly, as they tend to absorb moisture in the air and will become gummy in your food processor.
- Next, add the melted butter to the large bowl and stir with a whisk to combine the mixture and break up any big crumbs. That's it!
- Store the strawberry crunch topping in a large Ziploc bag or an airtight container in the fridge or freezer for about up to a month, however, they're best used within 1 week.
Notes
- The best investment you can make when you're getting started with baking is a digital kitchen scale!
- Practice Mise en Place (everything in its place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.
- You can freeze strawberry crunch in a plastic bag to keep it for months.
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