Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
These strawberry cheesecake cookies are soft, fruity, and easy to make! Try these strawberry white chocolate chip cookies for a delicious summer treat.
Servings: 24 cookies
Calories: 236kcal
Equipment
- stand mixer OR
- decorating gel red
- medium cookie scoop
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 8 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons strawberry extract or vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 5 drops red decorating gel *see Notes
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3.4 ounces instant cheesecake pudding mix unprepared
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
optional
- 1 ½ cups white chocolate chips
- ¼ cup chopped strawberries blotted dry with a paper towel. Or, use chopped dehydrated strawberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease or line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- To a large mixing bowl, add butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer on high speed, cream ingredients together for 2-3 minutes, or until mixture is fluffy and light in color. Add extract, eggs, and food coloring. Mix on medium speed until well combined.
- To a medium mixing bowl, add flour, dry pudding mix, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- With the mixer set on low speed, gradually incorporate the flour and other dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. **Don't over mix or your cookies will be tough. Using a spoon or mixing spatula, fold in the white chocolate chips and strawberries, if desired. **Reserve about half of the strawberries to place on top of each scoop of cookie dough before baking.
- Using a medium cookie dough scoop, portion the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches of space between cookies. If using, press reserved chopped strawberries gently into the top of each scoop of cookie dough.
- Bake in preheated 350ºF oven for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges of cookies are light golden brown. Remove pans from oven and let cookies sit for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
Notes
- For the best results, don't use liquid food coloring drops. Decorating gel provides better color, and won't water down the cookie dough like liquid drops will.
- Room temperature butter and eggs are easier to combine than cold ingredients.
- Use toothpicks to add gel coloring to any dough or batter. Dipping them into a jar of gel coloring allows you to control better how much (or how little) you use.
- Wondering how to get butter to room temperature quickly? It’s easy! Just use a knife to cut the stick into smaller pieces, and set them on a plate. Then, cover the plate with a warm bowl.
- To warm the bowl, fill it with water, then microwave for a minute or so. Then, dump the water out and invert the bowl over your butter pieces. This easy kitchen hack will soften your butter in 5 to 10 minutes!
- Classic cheesecake flavor: Keep the filling simple with a traditional cheesecake filling and a dusting of graham crackers on top.
- Berry blast: Mix in fresh strawberries and strawberry jam or swap in other berries for a twist.
- Extra sweetness: Drizzle with strawberry jam after baking for even more fruity flavor.
- Crunchy texture: Roll the cookie dough balls in graham cracker crumbs before baking for a crispier edge.
- Unlike cream cheese cookies, our strawberry cookie recipe does not include dairy products. Therefore, it’s perfectly fine to store them at room temperature for a few days. However, refrigeration does keep them fresh for a couple of extra days.
- To freeze cheesecake cookie dough, use a scoop to portion them out. Then, freeze them in an airtight container for up to a month.
If you want to garnish the tops with strawberries and chocolate, the dough will need to thaw first. When it reaches room temperature, then add the toppings and bake your cookies.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookie | Calories: 236kcal | Carbohydrates: 30g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 36mg | Sodium: 234mg | Potassium: 60mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 259IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 43mg | Iron: 1mg
