Cheesecake Cookies

Are you craving cheesecake but don’t want a traditional slice? Cheesecake Cookies are eggless cream cheese cookies rolled in graham cracker crumbs for a nice crunchy texture and taste almost exactly like you’re eating a slice. Best part is you don’t need to stuff nor frost them! Just bake and eat.

When people learn I’m a food blogger, some of the questions I get are “where do you get recipe inspiration?” and “do you keep a running list of ideas?”

The answers are pretty much everywhere (even in my dreams) and yes, I have about 10+ pages worth of recipe ideas. Probably more as I scatter ideas throughout my yearly planner.

Some of my favorite recipe ideas come from friends with special requests.

These Cheesecake Cookies (aka heaven in a bite) were inspired by a friend who sent me a message asking if I had any cheesecake cookie recipes she could make.

She saw my post for chocolate chip cheesecake bars but just wanted regular cookies you would find in a cookie jar.

Surprisingly I didn’t, so I got to work on developing a cream cheese cookie recipe. The question then became – how fancy do I want to get?

A lot of other recipes require you to stuff cookies with a cream cheese filling or even garnish with cream cheese frosting after baking.

However I wanted a very easy cheesecake cookie recipe with minimal work, so I opted for cream cheese cookies rolled in graham cracker crumbs to mimic the crust (or use chocolate cookie crumbs to make Oreo cheesecake cookies).

Each bite is a tangy, buttery flavor that tastes like if sugar cookies and cheesecake had a baby.

They’re also soft and tender on the inside while crunchy on the outside. Much like you were eating a bite of my classic cheesecake minus the refrigeration.

In fact, the best time to eat these cheesecake cookies is the same night you bake them after they cooled down.

The centers were (extra) soft and warm while the outside was crunchy.

Of course they’re still quite excellent for the next few days, but there was something magical about eating them while still slightly warm.

And thanks to the cream cheese that helps moisten and bind the dough, no eggs are required! Which means it was a snap to make a small batch of these eggless cookies.

Of course you can freeze the cookie dough and/or double the recipe to make more. Luckily this cream cheese cookie recipe is easy enough to do both!

Ingredients For Cheesecake Cookies

Here’s what you need to make your cream cheese cookies:

• Butter: Fat needed for the dough
• Cream cheese: Use a block full-fat cream cheese. Do not use low fat, fat free, or whipped.
• Sugar: Sweetens the dough
• Vanilla: Flavors the dough
• Flour: Binds the dough together
• Salt: Seasons the dough
• Graham cracker crumbs: Mimics the graham cracker crust as well as adds texture to an otherwise soft cookie

How To Make Cheesecake Cookies

Here’s how to make your cream cheese cookie recipe:

1. Beat together butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
2. Add flour, salt, and most of the graham cracker crumbs.
3. Scoop dough using a #40 cookie scoop.
4. Roll each dough ball into remaining graham cracker crumbs.
5. Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes then cool before eating.

Do cream cheese cookies need to be refrigerated?

No, you don’t need to refrigerate cheesecake cookies because the flour and sugar will absorb any moisture responsible for bacteria to grow from the little protein in cream cheese.

What To Do With Leftover Cream Cheese?

The hardest part about small batch baking is sometimes you don’t use the full ingredient amount.

Take cream cheese, for example. It only comes in 8 ounce blocks, but this recipe uses 2 ounces. What do you do with the rest?

Here are more recipes using cream cheese:

• Make dessert with cheesecake for two.
• Make a homemade tomato sauce with tomato mushroom pasta.
• Enjoy a cup of cheesecake hot chocolate.
• Frost cake or cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting, chocolate cream cheese frosting, or peanut butter cream cheese frosting.

First published February 9, 2015