Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

Pretty and tasty, make strawberry cheesecake cookies for a sweet treat

Last week, I decided to make these cookies, using the half package of cream cheese (8-ounce package) left over from frosting I had made for cinnamon rolls. (I only put a dollop of frosting on cinnamon rolls.) 

I hurriedly mixed the cookie batter, just before I was planning to leave the house, and only had time to bake one dozen. I used a teaspoon to drop the cookies onto the baking sheet. Of course, I had to try one immediately out of the oven, and it was very tasty. I put the remaining batter into the fridge.

Two days later, I baked another dozen cookies from the refrigerated batter. The previous dozen had all disappeared. My daughter told me she liked these even better than my lemon cookies. That's saying something, because sometimes all seven dozen from my lemon cookies recipe will disappear a in a week. (The recipe for the lemon cookies can be found on my Sweets and Treats page.)

On the third day, I took the remaining batter and baked another dozen cookies. Some of the cookies in this batch were a little larger than the other two batches I had previously baked. I decided I liked the cookies a little larger. 

When I bake these cookies again, I plan to double the recipe and drop the batter with a tablespoon for a slightly larger cookies. These cookies are so good with coffee. 

Hint: I had frozen strawberries on hand, and that's what I used. The berries are so much easier to chop while frozen or slightly frozen. I let them thaw just a bit. If using fresh strawberries, I would suggest washing and capping them, and then putting them into the freezer until firm. Otherwise, the berries may be watery and messy from chopping/slicing.

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened (Do not melt butter. Let soften at room temperature.)

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup strawberries, sliced into small pieces

 (I filled a cup with small/medium strawberries and then sliced them.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together cream cheese, butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla extract; beat until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder, blending well. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir together. Fold in strawberries. With a tablespoon or teaspoon, drop dough onto baking sheet, lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 14 minutes or until edges of cookies are slightly brown. Yield: 24 cookies dropped from a tablespoon and 36 cookies dropped from a teaspoon.

Nutrition info for batch of 24 cookies: one cookie, 97 calories; total fat, 5.7g: saturated fat, 3.5g; cholesterol, 23.5 mg; sodium, 21 mg; total carbs, 10.8g; fiber, 0.1g; sugar, 5.7g; protein, 1.5g.

Nutrition info for batch of 36 cookies: one cookie, 65 calories; total fat, 3.8g; saturated fat, 2.3g; cholesterol, 15.6 mg; sodium, 14 mg; total carbs, 7.2g; fiber, 0.1g; sugars, 3.8g; protein, 1g.

###