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:
- Beat together butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.
- Add flour, salt, and most of the graham cracker crumbs.
- Scoop dough using a #40 cookie scoop.
- Roll each dough ball into remaining graham cracker crumbs.
- 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.

Cheesecake Cookies
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!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces or 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 ounces full-fat cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon table salt
- 3 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line one large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl on medium-high speed (with paddle attachment if using stand mixer), beat together the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
- Turn the speed down to low then gradually beat in the flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons graham cracker crumbs (do not overmix).
- In a small bowl, add the remaining 1 tablespoon graham cracker crumbs. Using a #40 cookie scoop or by hand, roll the dough into 1 + 1/2 tablespoon balls, roll into the crumbs until completely coated, then place on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the tops are puffed. If they didn't spread as much as you'd like, very carefully flatten the cookies while still warm. Cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
- In the mood for chocolate? Check out my Oreo Cheesecake Cookies!
- Since you'll have leftover cream cheese, check out my recipes for Ramekin Cheesecake, Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting, and Tomato Mushroom Pasta.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchase.
Oh yes, these look great! Cheesecake in a cookie?? Count me innnn
Thanks!
Yummy. I have a cream cheese cookie that I love but never thought to roll it in graham crackers. Done slots of sprinkles though haha.
Oh yes I’ve seen these type of cookies rolled in sprinkles. Maybe there’s a way to do both? :)
Brilliant!! I like pretty much everything better in cookie form, these are going on the to-bake list asap!
:D Thanks!
I’m glad I’m not the only one with ideas everywhere (and often unreadable!). These cookies look great: much easier than a whole cheese cake!
Ha yes ideas everywhere! Mine are readable, thank goodness ;) Thanks!
These look delicious! Do you think it would work to mix some fruit in the batter?
I would say no to fresh fruit because that would add extra liquid to the dough. However, you could probably use dried fruit like dried cherries or even freeze-dried fruit. I know Trader Joe’s has freeze-dried strawberries and bananas that you could stir in. Or, you can grind into a powder then stir them in with the graham cracker crumbs.
Cookies look fabulous and I love the fact that they are eggfree.
These were sooooooooooo yummy!
I added ginger and nutmeg to taste and omg they were perfection!
Oh nice! Almost like a pumpkin spice cheesecake cookie.
This is such an easy and awesome recipe. I doubled it and used 2 oz of the cream cheese to make icing and they are amazing with the icing. Definitely makes them more unhealthy, but so worth it haha. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Love the idea of icing! Glad you enjoyed them.
I found this recipe in my search for a dessert that would use up the small amount of cream cheese I had in the fridge. I made these cookies a couple nights ago. They came out great! They really are like cheesecake and cookies combined into one package. I put them in the fridge so they’d be cold like a cheesecake, and they are still nice and chewy.
My dough was very soft and sticky and hard to work with, so I put it in the freezer for about 20 minutes before forming the cookies. That may have been because I used closer to 3oz cream cheese. Good recipe, thanks.
Oh good! Glad you were able to use up that last bit of cream cheese. It’s likely the extra bit of cream cheese made the dough a little stickier than expected (throws off the balance of flour), but it sounds like chilling the dough for a bit was the perfect solution.
I’ve tried the recipe twice and it’s been a flop on my end. I have an oven thermometer and a kitchen scale so I know that my measurements and temp are perfect. But for some reason they never spread out (I also soften the butter and cream cheese before mixing). By the 12th minute the bottoms are burnt and they have not spread out at all. I’m not sure what I am doing wrong. (When I say not spread out I mean that they stay pretty sphere shaped and I even tried pressing them down but they are still super dense and small).
Hmm what kind of cookie sheet are you using? Is it old or new? Are you using parchment paper, silicone mat, nothing at all?