Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
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These strawberry cheesecake cookies are soft, buttery, and filled with real strawberry pieces in every bite. They are naturally flavored and stuffed with a delicious cream cheese filling!
I never knew I could love a cookie as much as I love these strawberry cheesecake cookies (and I LOVE cookies, so that’s saying something). Up until now my favorite cookie was a tie between peanut butter cookies or cookie butter cookies. But these strawberry cream cheese cookies take the cake.
They’re easy to make, so buttery, have slightly crispy edges, and are so soft and pillowy. The flavor from the tiny chunks of strawberry throughout the batter is just amazing, and the cream cheese filling in the middle stays gooey while providing a tang in every bite. They are truly summer in cookie form!
Why These Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies Work
- The strawberry cookie dough has real strawberries folded into the dough, which gives the cookies a natural strawberry flavor without the need for anything artificial.
- Cream cheese filling is frozen and then wrapped up in between two balls of cookie dough, then baked, so there’s a perfect mix of cream cheese and strawberries in every bite.
- These cookies are big and pillowy, and because of the cream cheese filling, they stay soft for days!
Ingredients
These strawberry cheesecake cookies require 11 simple ingredients. A few notes about the ingredients:
- Butter: you can use regular butter, or dairy free butter for these cookies.
- Cream Cheese: you can use regular cream cheese or a dairy free/vegan cream cheese alternative for the filling. Ingredients used to make vegan cream cheese can vary so some may take longer to freeze than others, and regular (dairy) cream cheese will require more icing sugar to achieve the gooey filling.
- Strawberries: I strongly recommend using fresh strawberries. Frozen strawberries will release water into the dough and make it more wet and sticky. If you only have frozen strawberries, see recipe notes below for more instructions!
Step By Step Instructions
Note: Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
STEP ONE: In a small bowl, mix cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth. Line a small baking sheet or plate with parchment paper and place 12 heaping teaspoons of cream cheese on it. Freeze for at least one hour, or until frozen almost completely solid.
STEP TWO: Once the cream cheese is frozen, prepare two large baking sheets and set aside.
STEP THREE: Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, then mix in the egg and vanilla extract. Add in the dry ingredients until just combined.
STEP FOUR: Chop up the strawberries and very gently fold them into the cookie dough.
STEP FIVE: Scoop 10-12 heaping tablespoons of dough onto one lined baking sheet (each ball of dough will be almost 2 tbsps measured), Gently press a dent into half of the balls of dough. Take 6 cream cheese balls out of the freezer and place them on top of 6 of the balls of dough.
STEP SIX: Cover each ball of dough with another ball of dough, pinching the sides to seal it and keep the cream cheese inside. Place the tray in the fridge then repeat on a second tray with the remaining cookie dough.
STEP SEVEN: Preheat the oven. Chill the prepared dough while the oven preheats, then bake one tray at a time for 13-17 minutes. Leave cookies on the tray for 10-15 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
Note: Full ingredient measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of this page.
What kind of cream cheese should I use?
This recipe can be made with regular dairy ingredients if you aren’t dairy free. If using regular cream cheese, the full fat kind is best and you should increase icing sugar to 1/3 cup.
Regular (not vegan) cream cheese is firmer than vegan cream cheese alternatives, so it requires more icing sugar to achieve a softer filling.
If using dairy free/vegan cream cheese, be aware that every cream cheese brand is different. Some are made with a coconut base (which I prefer), others use tofu as a base. The time it takes to freeze the filling will vary based on the kind of cream cheese used.
Can I skip the filling?
Absolutely! You can totally skip the cheesecake part of these cookies and just make the most delicious strawberry butter cookies you’ve ever tasted.
Can I use frozen strawberries?
Yes but it’s not recommended. I tested these cookies many times with frozen strawberries and they work but you have to move really quickly because frozen strawberries hold water, that releases into the cookie dough as they thaw, making the cookie dough sticky and harder to work with. The color can sometimes bleed into the dough with frozen strawberries.
If you only have frozen strawberries, you can still use them. Be sure to dice them up before making the dough, then just work really quickly to assemble the cookies.
Expert Tips
- Use fresh strawberries instead of frozen. Frozen strawberries hold a lot of water and will make the dough very sticky.
- As you fold the top ball of dough over the cream cheese, the dough may start to get sticky. Keep a cloth nearby and wipe your fingers on it before moving to the next cookie to make it a bit easier to work with.
- Try not to add more strawberries to the dough than the recipe calls for. Too many strawberries will make the dough hard to work with.
- When assembling the cookies, make sure to use heaping tablespoons. These are big cookies! Each assembled ball will contain around 3-4 tablespoons of dough.
- Preheat the oven after you’ve prepared the dough with the filling inside. It isn’t a long chill time, but it just helps to firm up the cookies after you’ve been handling the dough and softening it up.
Storage and Freezing Instructions
The cookies are best enjoyed fresh, when the edges are still slightly crispy and crunchy. The cookies start to soften over time, so if you enjoy soft cookies you’ll like these even more the next day.
Because of the cream cheese filling, the cookies should be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for around 3-4 days.
You can also freeze them to enjoy later and let thaw in the fridge when you’re ready to eat!
MORE COOKIE RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
If you make this recipe, let me know how it went in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you! You can also tag me on Instagram or Facebook so I can check it out!
Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling
- ¾ cup (170 g) cream cheese (regular or vegan)*, softened, (6 oz) SEE NOTES
- ⅓ cup (40 g) powdered sugar*, SEE NOTES if using vegan cream cheese
Cookies
- 1 cup (210 g) butter (regular or vegan), softened
- ¾ cup (150 g) white sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2¾ cup (343 g) all-purpose flour *, SEE NOTES
- ½-⅔ cup fresh strawberries, diced small*, SEE NOTES
Instructions
- This recipe makes 12 LARGE cookies. See NOTES below for instructions to make smaller cookies** Line a small baking sheet or plate with parchment paper. In a small bowl, use a whisk or mixer (depending how hard your cream cheese is) to mix the cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth and combined.
- Place 10-12 heaping teaspoons of cream cheese on the baking sheet or plate. Freeze for at least one hour, or until frozen almost completely solid.
- When the cream cheese is frozen almost solid, line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda then set aside.
- In the bowl of a handheld mixer or standing mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes). Mix in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
- Add in the flour, salt, and baking soda, and mix until just combined (don't over-mix).
- Dice the strawberries and gently fold them in. You don't want to mix them in too much or they'll get squished and the color will bleed into the dough.
- Scoop 12 heaping tablespoons of dough onto each baking sheet. They should be fairly big – if measured they'd be about 2 tbsp-sized (these are big cookies!). Press the back of a teaspoon slightly into the top of half the balls of dough to create an indent.
- Remove the cream cheese filling from the freezer and place one into each of the cookies. Take a second ball of dough and place it over the cream cheese, pinching the sides to seal the cream cheese inside (see picture in post above), but making sure to not squish the cream cheese into the cookie dough. The dough may start to get sticky and a bit crumbly, and a bit harder to work with because of the strawberries, but just go with it! Wipe your hands clean before moving on to the next cookie. You should have tall balls of dough.
- Refrigerate the prepared cookie dough balls and repeat with the second cookie sheet and remaining dough. Preheat the oven to 350°F and leave the cookie dough in the fridge while it preheats.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven one sheet at a time for 13-17 minutes, or until the edges are slightly golden brown and the tops are set. Remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
The calorie information provided for this recipe is an estimate. The accuracy of the calories listed is not guaranteed.
These cookies are amazing!! Made them to bring to a friend but couldn’t keep my boyfriend away from them so had to make a second batch!
Hi Jill! I’m so thrilled to hear that the cookies were a hit! Thanks so much for the review!
Hi! Are you supposed to use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer! I’ve made these using both and it will work either way. I personally like my cookies a little bit less sweet, but if you prefer sweeter cookies, use unsalted!
Love the recipe. I never seem to get 12 full cookies with the amount of cream cheese and dough, but they still turn out amazingly! We eat them frozen in this house. They taste like an ice cream sandwich. It is delicious!!!
Hi Diana! I’m so happy to hear that you love the cookies! You could try just using slightly less dough in each cookie – or double the recipe for extra 😉 I absolutely love the idea of eating them frozen as well! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review!
Hey,I was just wondering if I could keep the cookies in the fridge over night, and bake them the next day?
Yes that would be fine! Enjoy 🙂
Hey, may i know how long the cookies stay fresh and how to storage the cookies ? thankyou
Hi Sabrina, the storage instructions are at the bottom of the recipe card. They are best enjoyed fresh, but you can also store them in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge.
Can these be made as bar cookies? If so, would you recommend a square pan or a 9×13? Any idea how long to bake them? Thanks in advance!
Hi Glory! I haven’t tried making these as bars so I really can’t say how they will turn out. I would imagine that the amount of dough would work well in a 9×13 pan, and they would probably take around 20-30 minutes to bake (just keep an eye on them). We’d love to hear how it goes if you try it, thanks for stopping by!
HI. `I am making these cookies right now and have a question. It says to freeze one hour. Would it be okay if i left it in the freezer overnight?
Thank you!
Hi Alejaya! The cream cheese filling can be frozen overnight, no problem 🙂 Enjoy!
Ok. Thank you SO much! You have been so helpful! 🙂
Made the cookies. They. Are. Amazing. And you weren’t kidding, they are huge cookies. I did experiment a bit. I’ve used blueberries and mango, and they turned out fine. Although, I did freeze them for a bit before folding then into the dough. I’ve also tried a chocolate chip strawberry combo. Same recipe except I added mini-chocolate chips to the dough and a 1.5 teaspoons of cocoa powder to the cream cheese filling.
Thanks for the recipe. I’m gonna try your Nutella Blondies next.
Hi Eddie! I’m loving those flavor combinations – they all sound delicious! So happy to hear that you loved the recipe! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review and I hope you love the blondies too! 🙂
I noticed I can’t find what temperature to preheat the oven to. Please let me know so I can try these!
Hi Kyle! The temperature is in the instructions in the recipe card – it’s 350°F. Enjoy!
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve featured this recipe in my Refreshing Summer Recipe Roundup at https://thesupermomlife.com/refreshing-summer-recipes/ 🙂
Hi! Thanks so much for the feature Heather! I’ve shared the post 🙂
Hi! I’m planning on making these this weekend. Which dairy free cream cheese do you suggest?
Hi Jessica! My favorite dairy free cream cheese is the President’s Choice brand, but they only have it in Canada. If you aren’t in Canada, the Violife brand is also really good. I haven’t tried these with Kite Hill brand myself, but I know readers have told me they tried Kite Hill with this recipe and it turned out great! The one brand of cream cheese I personally didn’t like at all was Daiya – I found it came out a bit runny (so I put them in the fridge and the cream cheese did firm up) and I personally don’t like the flavor of that one at all. I hope that helps! I’d love to hear how they turn out when you make them! Enjoy 🙂
Drooling these are sooooo good!!
Hi Morgan! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the cookies! Thanks so much for trying the recipe 🙂
I have freeze dried sliced strawberries, do you think those would work in this recipe ins place of fresh?
Hi Audrey! Yes freeze dried strawberries should work totally fine instead of fresh! I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it! 🙂
Oh my GOODNESS!!! These cookies are amazing! I think they are my new faves! Thank you for this recipe!!!???
Hi Angel! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the cookies, this made my day! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review 😀
SO GOOD! Made a single batch with Kite Hill almond cream cheese and Bob Redmill’s egg replacer and they turned out perfect! (Note, I was worried about them spreading, as can sometimes happen when using an egg replacer, so I added a half teaspoon of cream of tartar). I did make them a little smaller, using one teaspoon (not heaping) for the cream cheese and two tablespoons (not heaping) for each cookie — one tablespoon on bottom and another to cover the frozen cream cheese ball. I ended up with exactly 22 cookies and 12 teaspoons of cream cheese balls leftover. I plan to just use the cream cheese as a spread on a plain bagel. I kept them in the fridge and they stayed good for 4 days, on day 5 they started to get a little soggy on the bottom. These cookies were delicious right out of the oven, but otherwise need to be eaten cold out of the fridge (I tried warming one in the microwave and the cream cheese got melty and hot but cookie was still cold and it was a weird combo). Can’t wait to make them again!
Hi Danielle! Wow, I am so, so happy that you loved the cookies! And I’m so happy to hear that they worked out well with the egg replacer! Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and leave a review, and I know this will be really helpful information for other readers too! 🙂
If forego filling presume cookies can be baked immediately???
Yes that is correct!
I haven’t made these yet, as strawberry’s are just now coming in along with blueberries and blackberries. Can either of these be use also for the cookies? Thanks
Hi Rose! I haven’t tried making these with blackberries or blueberries but I think it should work if they are fresh. The blackberries would need to be chopped into quarters (depending on how big they are). I would recommend freezing the berries for about 30-60 minutes (if using blackberries, chop them up before freezing), then tossing them in a bowl with some flour to coat them and reduce the chances of colour spread before folding into the dough. Blueberries can be really juicy too, so just try not to squish the berries too much when mixing them in. Would love to hear how it goes if you try it! Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
Thanks for the quick reply! If I do make these with other berries I will let you know how they turn out.
How about not mixing the blueberries into the cookie dough maybe mix it with the cream cheese more like a stuffed cookie.
Hi Sandra, I haven’t tried making these with blueberries or mixing the berries in with the cream cheese, but I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it!
Great & delicious ?
Thank you so much! So happy that you loved them!
Can bobs red mill gluten free flour 1 to 1 baking flour be used
Hi Thelma! I think that Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 AP flour would work the best out of any gluten free flour option for this recipe. However, I haven’t tested it myself with that flour, so I can’t say for sure how it would turn out! Would love to hear how it goes if you try it!
Made these and they were so delicious!!! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi Sakina! Yay! I am so happy that you loved the cookies 🙂 Thanks for the review!
Can I use the sugar free sugar and also can I use almond flour in this receipe?
Hi Mary, I haven’t tested this recipe with sugar free sugars or with almond flour, so I can’t say how the cookies would turn out. I think it would also depend on which type of sugar free sugar substitute you are using, but I believe they wouldn’t spread or be as soft. Here is a resource you could check out to learn more about using sugar substitutes in baking: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2020/01/27/sugar-alternatives-for-baking and here is a good resource for substituting almond flour in baking: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/blog/2017/03/20/baking-with-almond-flour
Good luck!
What a awesome recipe what can I use instead of the on egg as I have a child with a egg allergy
Hi Kelly! I would try using a flax egg! (https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/flaxseed-meal-egg-replacer/) I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for sure how it will turn out but that’s what I would do! Would love to hear how it turns out if you try it! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
I just wanted to pop in and say – “Well done on taking the extra time to respond with additional resources!”
I have read through most of your comments and responses and I’m pleased to say that you do a great job and I’m proud of you for going the extra! That’s hard to find these days! You should be very proud! And of course this recipe is an absolute must try for everyone who loves either strawberries, cream cheese or cookies! They are fantastic!
Take care! ?
Hi Rebecca! What a lovely thing to say – thank you so much! I do try really hard to make sure that readers have as much information as possible 🙂 I’m also so happy to hear that you loved the recipe as well! Thank you again for the kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment 🙂
These look amazing. Do you think I could use fresh cherries in place of strawberries?
Hi Debbie! I think fresh cherries would work fine in this recipe, but I would recommend patting them with dry after chopping them up. Cherries tend to bleed their color more than strawberries so this step might help with that. I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it!
How many cookies does one recipe make? I’m going to try them tonight!
Hi Katie! The recipe makes 12 big cookies! 🙂 Thanks for giving the recipe a try and enjoy!!
This recipe looks great….can I double it if I want to make more cookies? Do I keep the same measurements?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Catherine! Yes, absolutely you can double it – just double all measurements and be sure to chill the assembled dough while the other cookies bake 🙂 Enjoy!
Can Freeze dried strawberries be used for this recipe?
Yes, definitely!
Is it packed brown sugar or granulated brown sugar?
Hi Tara – it’s packed light brown sugar 🙂
easily one of the best cookies I’ve ever had, soft, sweet and delicious! could definitely eat an entire batch in one sitting, be careful!
What a compliment, thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the recipe – these are my absolute favorite cookies too!
This was excellent! I might try just a bit more strawberries or maybe a drizzle to get a bit more strawberry flavor. But this is hands down my favorite recipe Ive tried in years!
Hi Lauren! Yay! What a compliment! I’m so happy that you love them! Freeze dried strawberries tend to provide more flavor than fresh or frozen, so that’s always an option as well! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a review 🙂