These easy, homemade, from-scratch strawberry cheesecake cookies are absolutely scrumptious and more-ish! Flavored with strawberries and stuffed with cream cheese, finished with a sugar crunch.
These cheesecake-filled cookies are packed with strawberry flavor and finished with a sugar crunch. They have a crunch, and are soft, with a slight chew. The perfect pink treat!
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I love strawberries, I love cheesecake, and I love cookies - so why not combine all three and put up my first-ever stuffed cookie on the site?
When meandering in the grocery store, freeze-dried fruit and fruit powders caught my eye, and I have been wanting to use these in baking as they will add little to no moisture to the baked goods. This means they will add fruit flavor without the added complications of additional moisture. Which is perfect for flavoring cookies in particular!
So I set out to start developing a strawberry cookie recipe that made 18 cookies and would be absolutely delicious and baked on its own without a filling. This recipe is based on my sprinkle sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies.
If you are looking for a plain strawberry-flavored cookie then simply leave out the cream cheese filling and bake as directed in the recipe.
For the cream cheese filling, I tried making the filling with icing sugar as well as plain white sugar, and the plain white sugar, in my opinion, made a better filling. I also played around with the amount of filling and found that about 1½ teaspoons of filling was the perfect amount.
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- These strawberry cream cheese cookies are the perfect fruit-flavored cookie treat.
- They are stuffed with cream cheese which adds a delectable soft and creamy center!
- These cookies can be baked without the filling for a plain (but absolutely delicious) strawberry cookie.
- These stuffed cookies are fairly easy to make and just require a little bit of time and patience.
- The pink color is perfect for pink-inspired themes!
Ingredients
Here are some notes on the ingredients used in this recipe. Please see the recipe card for quantities.
Cream cheese - I like block cream cheese like Philadelphia cream cheese. It's perfect for baking and makes a great cream cheese filling.
White sugar is used to sweeten the cream cheese center a little bit. I have also tried this with icing sugar and preferred plain white sugar.
White and light brown sugar to sweeten and flavor the cookie. Additionally, the brown sugar adds a lovely chewy softness to the final cookie product.
Butter adds flavor, softness, and moisture and sometimes aids in the leavening of baked goods. I use New Zealand butter in my recipes, which has approximately 82% butterfat and can be very yellow (similar to European or Irish butter). Butter cannot be substituted with butter or margarine spreads, but it can be substituted with baking margarine.
Salt is a crucial ingredient in all baked goods. I use table salt in all my recipes. One teaspoon of table salt equals 1.5 teaspoons of Morton Kosher Salt equals 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal.
Eggs - I now use a New Zealand size 6 egg, which is around the same size as Australian and South African Large Eggs, but closer to a US/Europe Medium sized egg. For this recipe, I knew that a single egg would not be enough to bind everything, but that two eggs would be too much. This is why I tested this recipe with 1 egg, and 1 egg yolk and was really happy with the outcome.
Baking powder and baking soda (bicarbonate of soda/bread soda) are used as a leavening agent, giving these cookies a little bit of lift and lightness. Make sure your baking powder/soda is fresh by placing ½ teaspoon into a cup or bowl. Pour about ¼ cup of boiling water over the baking powder/baking soda. If it foams it is still fresh.
Plain flour, all-purpose, or standard-grade flour is used for these cookies.
The vanilla extract deepens the flavor of the cookie.
Freeze-dried strawberries to flavor this cookie, or freeze-dried strawberry powder (which we can get here in New Zealand from the brand Fresh As). Freeze-dried strawberries add no moisture to the cookie, but really pack a flavor punch! Because we are using a freeze-dried product - this means that any freeze-dried flavor can be substituted in these cookies - the sky is the limit.
Food coloring - (gel food coloring is preferred) to really bring out a nice red-pink color of the cookies. This can be left out, but the beautiful dusty pink of the strawberries will change color during the baking and turn brown.
Room Temperature Ingredients
Use room-temperature ingredients! Using room temperature ingredients ensures that ingredients in the batter or dough will incorporate easier. Take note that room temperature refers to around 20°C/68F.
- To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, place them into warm water for about 10 to 15 minutes.
- To bring butter to room temperature quickly, cut the butter into cubes and zap it in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or place the cubes in a bowl over warm water (such as with a double boiler) over low heat for 1 minute!
- Milk, buttermilk, and cream can be brought to room temperature by zapping in the microwave at 20% power in 10-second intervals. Or on low heat for a minute or two swirling every 10-15 seconds.
- If the butter is too warm/soft for baking - pop it into the fridge for 20-30 minutes.
Weighing & Measuring Ingredients
Weighing ingredients with a kitchen scale is more accurate than using measuring cups. All my recipes are developed and tested using grams only.
However, I have activated the metric-to-cup conversions. Simply click on "cups" or "metric" for your preferred measurements. For these conversions, cups are equal to 240 millilitres/8 fluid ounces, tablespoons are 15 milliliters and teaspoons are 5mL.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1 - If using freeze-dried strawberry pieces, either blend or grind the strawberries in a mortar and pestle to form a powder.
Step 2 - In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and freeze-dried strawberries. Either using a whisk or a hand mixer beat until combined.
Step 3 - Line a large plate or small baking tray with baking paper. Portion out the cream cheese filling in 18, which is about 1½-2 teaspoons. Place in the freezer until frozen solid (this can take up to 2 hours).
Step 4 - In a large mixing bowl, partially cream together the butter, white and brown sugars. About 1 minute using a hand mixer.
Step 5 - Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy and well-combined (about 2 minutes using a hand mixer).
Step 6 - Add the strawberry powder and food coloring and mix until combined.
Step 7 - Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter-egg mixture and mix to form a soft dough.
Step 8 - Place the last sugar into a small bowl for the sugar coating. Divide the cookie dough into 18 portions, about 2 tablespoons of dough. I use a No. 30 scoop.
Step 9 - Place a cookie dough ball into the palm of your hand and create an indentation in the middle. Pop a frozen cream cheese ball into the middle of the ball, and gently work the dough around the filling. Roll the dough into a ball, making sure all the cream cheese is covered by cookie dough.
TIP - If the cream cheese starts to get soft, pop it back in the freezer to harden up. This will make rolling the cookies easier.
Step 10 - Roll the cookie dough balls in sugar, place them on a plate or baking tray, and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 11 - Preheat the oven to 180°/355°F, and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Step 12 - Place the cookies on a baking tray, about 7cm apart, and bake for 12-15 minutes. Check at the 12-minute mark.
Step 13 - Scoot around the edges of the cookies with a large cookie cutter while still warm for picture-perfect cookies.
Step 14 - Allow to cool on the baking tray for 10 minutes before gently placing on a wired cooling rack to cool completely.
