These Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies have a delicious fresh flavor with a creamy center making them the perfect bite!
I needed to take a moment to catch up on my GBBO bakes, so I decided to give myself a moment to breath with a cookie recipe instead! I recently stumbled into the recipe for Strawberry cheesecake cookies and they immediately because a favorite.
Rarely do I make multiple batches of cookies within a week of each other. These cookies were truly a crowd favorite. They do require a little more prep work than some standard cookie recipes, but I think that the effort is well worth it.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and how the recipe works for you!
Ingredients
The are not many surprising ingredients in this cookie recipe. Well, I guess that strawberries are a rather weird ingredient to put into a cookie. I honestly have not baked with fresh strawberries that much before.
Cream cheese was also used to create the fluffy and creamy center. This is not an abnormal ingredient, but I do think that this recipe uses cream cheese in an unconventional way.
Process
Creating the Center
The first step for making strawberry cheesecake cookies is to create the cream cheese center. To start, I whipped together the cream cheese with powdered sugar to create the fluffy filling. Then it was time to divide this into sphere-ish shapes.
I honestly did not do the best job of dividing the cream cheese. I originally was going off a one a half teaspoon size ball, but I think this is too large of a scoop. The number of cream cheese balls you have is the number of cookies that will be there at the end. I used large balls, so I ended up with less cookies.
This is something I changed in doing later batches where I did small sized balls of cream cheese. Even with the smaller size, the strawberry cheesecake cookies still have that gooey center but do not end up being giant. I am not sure why I did not use my cookie scooper… that would have been too smart.
After all the cream cheese filling was scooped into balls, I froze them. This is done to help keep the centers in… well… the center. With the centers frozen, they will stay in the center, keep their relative shape, and not dissolve into the surrounding cookie shell.
The Cookie Dough
The next step in this process is making the cookie dough. This process is relatively similar to other cookie recipes that I have made. I started by beating the butter for two to three minutes. I tend to beat the butter for longer if the butter is in a hardened state.
Then I added in the sugars and let the mixture cream together. This step typically takes another three to five minutes to get the mixture light and fluffy. Then I added in the vanilla extract and sugar. Finally, the eggs were added, one at a time, until the mixture became a wet slurry.
In a separate bowl. I mixed the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. This was done pretty quickly with just a fork before adding the flour mixture into the butter mixture. The cookie dough for the strawberry cheesecake cookies should be taking shape. I found this dough to be even stickier than I was originally anticipating.
Finally, I used a spatula to fold in the chunks of strawberries. I wanted to get the strawberries thoroughly distributed but I didn’t want to smash the strawberries too much. Since the strawberries were ripe, they are easy to accidentally mush.
Assembly
The last step, before baking, is assembling the centers and the cookie dough. My first attempt, the cookies basically came out super large. I felt like they were small tennis balls. I started by taking a disc of dough and placing the cream cheese in the center.
The dough was so sticky. I wish I had chilled this cookie dough to make it a little less tactile to work with. Then, the dough was pulled up around the sides of the cream cheese center and some more dough was added to the top to cover the cream cheese as much as possible.
And that is the process to make the dough balls of strawberry cheesecake cookies. I baked the cookies for about 14 minutes and then they were ready to eat! One thing of note about these cookies is that the cookies look a little moist in the center. This is not due to undercooking but the cream cheese center being visible.
Reflections
I am in love. These cookies are moist, soft, and absolutely delicious. I am going to have to find some self-restraint in order to not make a batch every weekend. But they are so good, I wouldn’t even mind them that often.
The only thing that was slightly unnerving about them is the cream cheese center being visible after baking. I was seriously nervous that I had underbaked the cookies. But the moisture of the cream cheese can sometimes just show through.
I was also surprised to see the cream cheese and powdered sugar mixture actually had a visible change. It baked through and became so light and fluffy. For some reason, my brain expected the center to mainly warm up and not bake. But I was proven wrong.
Lessons
Why Freeze?
Why freeze things that are going to be baked? It can help retain shape and prevent components from being mixed in or dissipated with other doughs. As the cream cheese warmed up, it would combine and mix with the dough and those cookies had smaller cores than others. When making smaller cookies, sometimes the center would disappear since the cream cheese would thaw.
recipe
Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- ⅔ Cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 3 Cup Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
- ½ Cup Strawberries diced
Cream Cheese Mix
- 6- oz Cream Cheese ¾ of a block
- ¼ Cup Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Whisk together cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Scoop mixture into 24 ½ Teaspoon (approximate) spheres and freeze until hardened (about one hour)
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Add eggs, one at a time, until fully combined.
- In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until just combined. Do not overmix.
- Add in strawberries. Chill dough to make it easier to work with (optional)
- Scoop out cookie dough into a small ball, add frozen cream cheese and wrap dough around the ball.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet and bake, at most two trays at a time, for 12 to 14 minutes.
- Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy