Strawberry Shortcake Fudge

5 from 1 vote

Your sweet tooth will thank you when you take your first bite of this divine strawberry shortcake fudge that is layered with a fun cookie crunch.

Prep Time10

Cook Time5

Chill Time1

Total Time1 15

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Strawberry Shortcake Fudge Recipe

Servings: pieces

Calories: 678kcal

3 cups white chocolate chips
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons freeze-dried strawberry powder
1 teaspoon strawberry extract, I used LorAnn Gourmet Strawberry bakery emulsion. It can be used interchangeably with extract.
2 to 3 drops red food coloring, optional
1 cup mini vanilla wafers

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Set aside.
In two small bowls, evenly divide ½ cup of the finely crushed vanilla sandwich cookies into each bowl.
Melt 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter in a small bowl. Pour half the melted butter over one bowl of crushed vanilla sandwich cookies and stir to evenly coat all the cookie crumbs with the melted butter.
Add the strawberry-flavored gelatin powder and red food coloring to the remaining melted butter. Stir to thoroughly combine the butter with the gelatin and food coloring. Pour the butter over the second bowl of crushed vanilla sandwich cookies. Stir to evenly coat the crushed cookies with the strawberry flavored butter.
Spread both bowls of the butter-coated crushed cookies onto the prepared rimmed baking sheet, gently tossing them together, and bake for 8 minutes.
When they come out of the oven, using a small spatula, gently break up the cookie crumbles so that it does not cool into one big piece. You want them to cool as a crumble. Allow the cookie crumble to cool on the counter while preparing the fudge mixture.

Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment paper and set it aside.
In a medium saucepan on medium heat, combine the white chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, remaining two tablespoons of unsalted butter, freeze-dried strawberry powder, and strawberry extract. You can add 2 to 3 drops of red food coloring at this time if your brand of strawberry extract is clear or if you prefer your fudge to be a deeper shade of pink.
Melt the chocolate and other ingredients, stirring often to prevent the chocolate from burning and to ensure that all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. This can take 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer half of the fudge mixture to the prepared pan and spread it out into an even layer.
Evenly spread the mini vanilla wafers into a single layer over the first half of the fudge in the pan. Pour the remaining fudge over the top of the mini vanilla wafers and spread into an even layer as well.
Sprinkle the reserved cookie crumble over the top of the fudge evenly. Gently press the crumble into the top of the fudge to ensure that it does not fall off the strawberry shortcake fudge when sliced.
Chill the strawberry shortcake fudge, in the refrigerator, for 1 to 2 hours or until firm before cutting into squares.

For the freeze-dried strawberry powder, you will just need to place about a ½ to ⅓ cup of freeze-dried strawberries into a Ziploc bag and crush them up until you have a fine powder. They are very delicate, so it did not take much effort to squeeze the bag with my hands to get a strawberry powder from them to use to flavor and help color the fudge mixture.
To crush your cookies quickly, pulse cookies in the food processor until they are fine crumbs.
If your brand of strawberry extract is clear, then you may want to add a couple of drops of food coloring to the fudge mixture. You do not need to do this as your freeze-dried strawberry powder will also help to lightly color your fudge pink, but if you want a deeper shade of pink, then you can add the additional food coloring. Be careful not to add too much as too much liquid (from extracts and food coloring) added to the melted white chocolate can cause it to seize up and not melt properly. You can use a good quality gel food color, which will lend to better results. Remember that gel food color is typically more intense in color than liquid, so just a drop of red should do for a pink color.