These raspberry lemonade cookies are just like the ones from Subway! Soft, chewy, and filled with raspberry and lemon flavours – everyone loves them!
I think raspberry and lemon together might just be one of my favourite flavours of all time. Besides chocolate of course.
It’s clear that I’m a fan though. Lots of raspberry lemon recipes happen around here.
These raspberry lemon blondies are definitely a favourite for my whole family. And these lemon raspberry sweet rolls are a little too good. Can’t let myself make those too often. They’re dangerous.
Today I’m sharing a copycat recipe for Subway’s raspberry lemonade cookies. I tried these cookies a few weeks ago, and loved them. So of course, I needed to recreate them.
It was a little tougher then I expected, to be honest.
I figured out the cookie part fairly quickly. I started from the recipe for these Raspberry Lemon Cookies, which have long been a popular recipe on my site. The Subway cookie is a bit softer though, and has white chocolate chips and raspberry jam bits in it.
Making the cookie a bit softer was easy, I just needed to add some cream cheese to the dough. Throw in some white chocolate chips and it’s all good.
But the raspberry part was tough. I tried quite a few different options – raspberries, raspberry jam, thickened raspberry jam, raspberry fruit leather – none of those was quite right. They were all tasty, but the flavour and the look were different then the Subway raspberry lemonade cookie.
I finally thought of trying raspberry flavoured candy in the cookies. That was the winner.
The candy that worked the best was these Real Fruit Gummies. I also tried Swedish Berries, and they worked fairly well too, but the Real Fruit Gummies were closer to the Subway cookies.
I only used the raspberry gummies, and cut them up really small. They melted a bit in the oven which replicated the flavour and texture of the Subway cookies quite well. They’re not identical, but pretty close.
I think that these raspberry jammy bits from King Arthur Flour would probably work really well, but they don’t ship to Canada, so I haven’t tried them.
So, one more tasty raspberry lemon treat to add to the list of favourites! If you love those flavours, you need to try these raspberry lemonade cookies. They’re so good!
How to make Raspberry Lemonade Cookies (Subway copycat):
- This cookie dough is extremely soft, so don’t try to roll it into balls to bake it, it’s a simple drop cookie. I use a 1.5 tablespoon sized cookie scoop for these cookies, which is the best way to have uniform sized cookies.
- With the raspberry Real Fruit Gummies, I cut each one into about 16 pieces with kitchen shears and then stirred the pieces into the dough. I measured out the 1/3 cup of candies before cutting them. Don’t measure them after cutting because the little pieces would all stick together and be difficult to stir into the dough. Instead, add them to the bowl of cookie dough as you cut, and stir them in once or twice while you’re cutting up the candies so they don’t all stick together.
- The flavour with using Swedish Berries instead wasn’t quite as close to the Subway version, but the candies didn’t melt in the oven so they were easier to work with. The Real Fruit Gummies had the best flavour, but they do melt in the oven. This is fine, but you will want to make sure that the candies aren’t on the bottom of the cookies when they’re baking. I just looked at the bottom of the cookie every time I scooped up some dough, pulled off the candies that were visible, then stuck them onto the top of the cookie after placing it on the cookie sheet. If the candies are on the bottom of the cookie they will melt and spread out from the cookie while baking.
- You definitely want to use parchment paper on your cookie sheets for these cookies so clean up of any candy that does melt onto the cookie sheet will be easier!
- It looks like the Dare Real Fruit Gummies are actually a Canadian thing. So if you can’t find them where you are, the texture of these candies is similar to Welch’s fruit snacks, so I think the raspberry Welch’s fruit snacks would work just as well, although I haven’t tried them. The Dare candies are 2-3 times bigger then the Welch’s fruit snacks though, so you don’t need to try and cut those into 16 pieces – that would be really small! Any raspberry candy with a similar texture that’s made from real fruit should work out well though.
Here are some more great lemon recipes for you:
- Lemon Cookies
- Lemon Sugar Cookie Cups
- Glazed Raspberry Lemon Bread
- Lemon Blueberry Turnovers
- Homemade Lemon Curd
Raspberry Lemonade Cookies {Subway Copycat}
These raspberry lemonade cookies are just like the ones from Subway! Soft, chewy, and filled with raspberry and lemon flavours - everyone loves them!
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest (about 1-2 lemons)
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons lemon flavouring
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/3 cup raspberry Real Fruit Gummies (or other raspberry flavoured gummy candy, cut up into small pieces)
- 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
- coarse purple sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- In a food processor, mix the sugar and lemon zest until well combined, and the sugar is lightly yellow and fragrant.
- Add the butter and cream cheese and process until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla, lemon flavouring, egg, and lemon juice and mix well, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Mix in the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until combined.
- Stir in the white chocolate chips and the raspberry gummy candy pieces.
- The raspberry candy pieces tend to stick together so I find it’s easiest to add them as you cut them up, pausing to stir them in once or twice so that they don’t all stick together.
- Drop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheet, in 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls (I like to use a cookie scoop for this).
- The candies melt in the oven so it’s best to make sure none are on the bottom of your cookies before baking. Simply pull off any candies on the bottoms/lower sides of the cookie balls and stick them on the tops.
- Sprinkle the cookies with coarse purple sugar.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until they are just starting to brown on the edges.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5-7 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
I used Dare Raspberry Real Fruit Gummies for the raspberry bits in these cookies. If you can’t get those where you are, Swedish Berries worked quite well too, although they didn’t melt into the cookie and give as much raspberry flavour as the Real Fruit Gummies did. Welch’s fruit snacks are a similar texture to the Fruit Gummies and would probably work well too (although I haven’t tried this).
The candies do melt, so you will want to make sure they aren’t on the bottom of the cookie when you place it on the baking tray, or it will melt all over the place. Just check as you scoop up the dough and pull off any candies on the bottom and move them to the top as you place the dough on the cookie sheet. It is very soft and sticky cookie dough though so this is easiest with a cookie scoop so you can see the bottom of the cookie as you scoop up the dough with it.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
28Serving Size:
1 cookieAmount Per Serving: Calories: 132Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 18mgSodium: 65mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 0gSugar: 11gProtein: 2g
Nutrition Information is estimated based on ingredients used and may not be exact.
Elizabeth
Monday 26th of August 2024
So, not really like the Subway cookies. They were a lemon-flavored cookie with lemon chips, not white chocolate. There were no raspberry bits in the cookie instead it was lightly covered in raspberry sanding sugar. I know this because I worked for Subway at the time that these came out, and I tried to replicate them as well. Finding lemon-flavored chips was impossible at the time but there were ways of making your own, the same was true for raspberry-flavored sanding sugar. Your cookies are very nice, I made them for the family and they were a hit, but everyone agreed that your recipe may have been inspired by the Subway cookies, but they were definitely NOT the same.
Stacey
Wednesday 11th of September 2024
Maybe the Subway cookies in the States and Canada are different (I'm just assuming that maybe you're in the US, not Canada!)? I bought some at Subway when working on this recipe and they were very similar. There were raspberry bits in the Subway cookies, and it was white chocolate, not lemon chips. But maybe the ones you had were different. The ones I bought at Subway were very similar to this recipe though. Glad you still enjoyed the cookies even if they weren't what you expected!
What
Wednesday 30th of June 2021
Nah you said "just like subway" in the description. Gummies!!!????
Stacey
Wednesday 30th of June 2021
Well I made them with a subway cookie right next to them to taste test and they are pretty close. Like I mentioned in the post, I think the "jammy bits" that King Arthur flour sells would be good and are likely the type of thing that subway uses, but I can't get those in Canada. The type of candy used makes a difference too. Just any gummy candy may not end up being close to the subway cookies, but the ones I used are made with real raspberry juice and melt into a jam-like texture, making the cookies extremely close to the subway version. But you would know that if you bothered to read the post first.
Carolyn
Friday 14th of August 2020
Hi Stacey! I made these cookies today and they were awesome! The only thing I changed was that I didn't put the raspberry gummy candy in the dough. I put the pieces on top of each cookie then sprinkled it with the purple sugar.
STephy
Wednesday 3rd of July 2019
One reason they do not taste like the subway version is because Subway uses a raspberry flavored sugar for the topping. They use frozen dough and sip then the cookie into the sugar before cooking so the sugar melts down a bit.
LizzieKay
Saturday 29th of January 2022
@Stacey, also the chips were lemon flavored. Lemon flavored chips are impossible to find. I used to get mine from an Amish general store.
Stacey
Wednesday 3rd of July 2019
Yup, I know. But raspberry sugar is not something I had available. I mentioned that they're not identical, just close. :)