Strawberry Cheesecake Stuffed Cookies

These strawberry cheesecake stuffed cookies are a chewy delight, packed with fresh strawberries, white chocolate chips and graham cracker pieces, and filled with a surprise cheesecake center - it really is the best of both worlds!

You no longer have to choose between a chewy cookie or a slice of cheesecake! Get the indulgence of a luxurious cookie with all the mixins, and enjoy the sweet, creamy cheesecake in the middle.

These strawberry cheesecake cookies are the perfect cookie as we come into summer, and more importantly - strawberry season! I love baking with fresh berries in my bakes, such as my Strawberry Custard Tarts or my Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake. The process of stuffing cookies with cheesecake may sound daunting at first, but I promise you it's one of those deceptively easy cookie recipes!

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Prepare the Cheesecake Filling
• Prepare the Cookie Dough
• Assemble the Stuffed Cookies
• Can you use Frozen Strawberries or Dried Strawberries?
• Storage
• Recipe

Ingredients

Cream Cheese - Try to use regular cream cheese (full-fat) as the cheesecake is going to be the star of the show so the kind of cream cheese really matters.

Icing Sugar - Icing sugar, also known as powdered sugar, is the superfine, powdery sugar you'll find in the baking aisle. Make sure you sieve it before adding to the cream cheese to avoid getting any lumps.

Vanilla Extract - The cheesecake only has three ingredients and vanilla is one of them, so it's important to use a high-quality vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. I like using vanilla bean paste for this as it means you see all the little specks of vanilla in the cheesecake when you bite into it.

Butter - Unsalted butter is best for this. make sure it's at room temperature before beginning.

Sugar - I used white sugar as I wanted the strawberries and cheesecake to be the main flavors, but if you want to you can use light brown sugar instead.

Flour - Regular all-purpose flour is all you need for these cookies.

Egg - Use large eggs and if you can always try to use free-range.

Cornstarch - The cornstarch (also known as cornflour) helps to make nice chewy, soft cookies.

Strawberries - It's important to use fresh strawberries in these cookies. If you use frozen, there will be too much liquid released as they bake and the cookies will come out soggy. It's also important not to slice the strawberries too small for this same reason. See the section below for guidance on what size to slice them.

White Chocolate Chips - You don't have to make these as white chocolate chip cookies, but I find they really add to the flavor and give the cookie that extra punch of sweetness. If you don't have white chocolate chips you can use white chocolate chunks or just buy a white chocolate bar and chop it into small pieces.

Graham Crackers - The graham crackers really elevate the texture of the cookie and also lend themselves to the 'cheesecake' flavor of the strawberry cookies. If you don't want to mix them into the actual cookie dough you could just sprinkle them on top - either way, it adds a nice, tasty crunch!

See recipe card for quantities and the full recipe.

Prepare the Cheesecake Filling

• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla until completely smooth and free from lumps. It helps if the cream cheese is at room temperature before starting to make your delicious cream cheese filling.

• Line a small cookie sheet with parchment paper and use a teaspoon to dollop generous blobs of the cream cheese mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. If you don't have a cookie sheet that is small enough to fit in your freezer, you can also do this on a plate.

• Place the teaspoons of cream cheese into the freezer for at least 30 minutes before beginning to make the cookie dough.

Prepare the Cookie Dough

• Heat oven to 350°F / 180°C and line one or two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

• Start by prepping all your mixins. If you need to wash your strawberries, make sure they are completely dry before you start using them. Slice them horizontally from top to bottom in about ¼ inch rounds (see image below). For best results don't slice them too small as fresh fruit releases a lot of moisture and smaller pieces may make your cookies soggy. Break your graham crackers into little ½-inch pieces. If you want you can also crumble some up to make graham cracker crumbs to sprinkle on top of the cookies.

• In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, I use a stand mixer but you could also use a hand mixer, electric mixer, or just a wooden spoon.

• Add egg and vanilla and beat on medium speed until smooth.

• Sieve the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and cornstarch) together, then mix into the batter until there are no lumps of flour mixture.

• Add the white chocolate chips and graham cracker pieces and mix on low speed, just until evenly distributed.

• Add the sliced strawberries and gently mix through the dough, being careful not to mash them up.

• These strawberry cream cheese cookies do not require any chill time before baking, so you're good to go as soon as the cookie dough comes together.

Assemble the Stuffed Cookies

• Use a medium cookie scoop or a spoon and take about two tablespoons of dough and form it into a ball. Flatten it on the cookie sheet and use your thumb or a spoon to press a groove in the middle for the cream cheese filling to go into. Repeat until your cookie sheet is full or you have used half the cookie dough. Make sure you allow plenty of space between cookies as they are large-sized cookies and will spread quite a bit in the oven.

• Once all your cookie bases are formed, remove the decadent cheesecake filling blobs from the freezer and carefully place one in the center of each cookie, in the cookie grooves you made.

• Take another scoop of cookie dough and place it on top of the cheesecake, using your hands to manipulate the dough to join up at the sides to form large cookie dough balls with no cheesecake showing. Repeat with all the cookies.

• Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the cookies have spread out entirely and are golden brown.

• Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for about 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack - this is an important step to prevent the base of the cookies from turning soggy. Let them cool on the wire rack completely before serving as they are very soft and need to firm up a little so they don't break.

Tip: Part of this cookie recipe is that it just is a little fiddly and messy, but if the dough becomes too sticky while you are handling it, put it in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes before continuing.

Can you use Frozen Strawberries or Dried Strawberries?

For these delicious strawberry cheesecake cookies to be at their best I highly recommend using fresh strawberries. The problem with frozen strawberries is that they will release too much moisture into the cookie and you run the risk of having a soggy cookie - and nobody wants that!

Dried fruit or freeze-dried strawberries would work, but the flavor and the look will not be the same as if you use fresh fruit.

Storage

While most cookies should not be stored in the fridge, these cheesecake stuffed cookies should be kept in the fridge. Put them in an airtight container and keep them refrigerated for up to three days.

For maximum flavor, remove them from the fridge about 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe