Strawberry Lemonade Melt Away Cookies

For the cookies:

1. Place one of your oven racks in the upper third of the oven (this will keep the cookies from getting too brown on the bottom). Preheat oven to 325˚F. Line two sheet pans with parchment baking paper.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk the butter until very light and fluffy, about 20-30 seconds. Add the powdered sugar fand stir until completely incorporated, then add the cornstarch, vanilla and salt. Stir until nice and smooth.
3. Lastly, add the flour. Stir until all of the flour has been incorporated. At first, the dough will be very crumbly. Keep stirring, turning the bowl and scraping the sides and bottom as you go.
4. The dough will be soft but you should be able to scoop it up and roll it into a ball. If it seems too soft to roll add 1 tablespoon of flour and stir until incorporated. This can be repeated one more time. If the dough still seems too soft to roll, put the bowl in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, then proceed as directed below.
5. Using a small cookie scoop, make equal-sized scoops of dough. Roll each scoop into a ball then roll each ball in the sugar. (The sugar will make it a little easier to roll the dough into nice round balls.) Roll the ball again to a nice round shape.
6. Arrange the dough balls on the prepared sheet pans, spacing them about 2 inches apart. With a flat bottom glass, gently flatten each cookie slightly, to about ½ inch in height.
7. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until just beginning to turn light golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a cooking rack.

For the strawberry syrup:

1. While the cookies are baking, make the strawberry syrup by combining the strawberries and granulated sugar in a large microwave-safe bowl (at least 2-3 cup capacity as the strawberry mixture will bubble up a lot).
2. Place the bowl with the strawberries in the microwave and cook on high power for one minute.
3. Remove the strawberry mixture from the microwave and pour it into a fine-mesh sieve with a bowl set underneath. Stir and push on the solids in the strainer with a spatula or the back of a metal spoon until all of the juice has been strained out. Be sure to scrape the juice from the underside of the sieve. Discard the solids and transfer the syrup back to the original large microwave-safe bowl.
4. Return the syrup to the microwave and cook on high power for another minute. You should have right around 2- 2½ tablespoons of strawberry syrup. If there’s more, return the mixture to the microwave for 30-second increments until reduced to 2- 2 ½ tablespoons. Transfer the strawberry syrup to a medium-size bowl.

For the strawberry lemonade icing.

1. While the cookies are cooling, make the icing. Add the lemon juice to the bowl with the strawberry syrup. Stir well to combine.
2. Add powdered sugar and vanilla to the strawberry syrup in the bowl. Stir with a whisk until smooth and well combined.
3. The mixture should be fairly thick but if you hold it above the bowl with your whisk or fork, it should be loose enough to drizzle in a thick ribbon. If it seems too thin, add an additional tablespoon of powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add a teaspoon of extra lemon juice.
4. Spread icing on the cooled cookies.
5. ENJOY!