These strawberry cheesecake cookies are soft, sweet, and stuffed with a velvety cream cheese center. The dough is a soft sugar cookie with chunks of white chocolate and real strawberry pieces mixed in, then each one gets wrapped around a creamy cheesecake filling that gets perfectly melty during baking. The cookies bake up thick and soft, with a gooey center and golden edges.
These are especially great in spring and summer when strawberries are at their best. Since they’re filled with cream cheese, you’ll want to store any extras in the fridge (but they’re just as good cold). And speaking of cold, you can make the dough ahead, freeze the balls, and bake them one or two at a time whenever the craving hits.
Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
Course: DessertDifficulty: Easy30
minutes40
minutes1
hour10
minutesSoft sugar cookie dough, fresh strawberries, cream cheese centers, and pops of white chocolate! These strawberry cheesecake cookies are spring or summer dessert baking at its best.
Ingredients
8 oz Cream Cheese ( 1 block), softened
1/3 cup Powdered Sugar
1 cup Unsalted Butter (2 sticks), softened
1 cup White Sugar
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 3/4 cup All Purpose Flour
2/3 cup Fresh Strawberries, diced small
Directions
- Make the cream cheese centers
– Line a small plate or baking sheet with parchment paper.
– In a small bowl, mix the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
– Scoop 10–12 heaping teaspoons onto the parchment and pop them in the freezer for at least an hour, until mostly solid. Flatten the tops before freezing to make the disks easier to stuff. - Make the dough
– When the cream cheese centers are almost frozen, line a large baking sheets with parchment paper or coat with a nonstick baking spray and set aside.
– Beat the butter and both sugars together for 1–2 minutes until light and fluffy. This is best done in a stand mixer or with an electric mixer, not by hand.
– In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
– Add the egg, extra yolk, and vanilla to the butter mixture and mix again. Add in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined.
– Dice your strawberries and gently fold them into the dough. Don’t over mix, just enough to get them evenly distributed without turning the dough pink. - Add the cheesecake centers
– Scoop out 12 heaping tablespoons of dough. These should be big (about 2 tablespoons each). Press the back of a teaspoon into the top of half the dough balls to make a little indent.
– Take the cream cheese discs out of the freezer and pop one into each indent. Top each one with another dough ball and pinch the edges to seal the cream cheese inside but don’t flatten them! You should end up with tall, thick cookie dough balls. - Chill and Bake
– Place the tray of cookie dough balls in the fridge while you preheat the oven to 350°F.
– Once it’s ready, bake for 13–17 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops are set.
-Let the cookies sit on the tray for 10 minutes after baking, then move them to a rack to cool completely.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Chill the dough – Letting your dough sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes makes shaping easier and helps the flavors meld. Longer is eve better.
- Don’t over mix – Mix until just combined so your cookies stay soft and pillowy.
- Chunks > Chips – Chunks melt better and give those creamy pockets of chocolate that pair perfectly with the cheesecake center. Roughly chopped chocolate bars work great for chunks.
- Use fresh but firm strawberries – Juicy berries are great for snacking, but for cookies you want firm strawberries that won’t release too much liquid and mess with the dough texture.
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