These are the best Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies made with fresh strawberries and a creamy cheesecake filling. They taste like strawberry cheesecake packed into a melt-in-your-mouth cookie. This is a must-try dessert recipe for spring and summer baking.
These strawberry cookies have the flavor of real sweet berries—no artificial flavors or cake mix is needed. If you love strawberries but want to skip the cream cheese filling, check out my recipe for Strawberry Shortcake Cookies.
Why You’ll Love These Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
- Texture: These buttery cookies are soft and tender; they will melt in your mouth.
- Natural flavour: Overloaded with fresh strawberries and homemade strawberry jam, these cookies are bursting with strawberry flavor.
- Cream cheese filling: A cheesecake center like a hidden surprise is a sweet bonus for cheesecake lovers.
- Strawberry cheesecake: Packed into a cookie form. If you love strawberries and cheesecake, these cookies combine the best of both worlds.
- Must-try recipe: Whether you’re baking for a special occasion or simply craving something delicious, this recipe is perfect for spring and summer desserts.
Ingredients You’ll Need
For this recipe, you’ll need just a few simple ingredients.
- Fresh strawberries for rich, natural flavor. Half of the strawberries go into the homemade strawberry jam, and half go fresh into the batter.
- Melted butter– and that means no mixer is needed; you can make these cookies using just a whisk
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar and light brown sugar
- Egg– to bind everything together
- Cream cheese– for creamy filling
- Baking powder, baking soda, and salt– for perfect texture.
- Vanilla extract
How to Make Cheesecake Cookies with Fresh Strawberries
As I mentioned, these cookies are bursting with a natural strawberry flavour. This recipe uses thick, homemade strawberry jam for a pronounced strawberry flavor, plus chopped fresh strawberries added to the dough.
Step 1. How To Make Homemade Strawberry Jam
- Wash, dry, and hull the strawberries. Place finely diced strawberries and light brown sugar in a medium pot and stir well.
- Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until very thick. Set aside to cool.
Step 2. Prepare Cheesecake Filling
- Beat softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, and sugar until smooth. Line a tray with baking paper and scoop out 12 portions of filling (about one Tablespoon per cookie).
- Slightly flatten each ball and place in the freezer for an hour, or until firm completely.
Step 3. Make Strawberry Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, combine melted butter, vanilla extract, and sugar. Whisk until dissolved, then add an egg and whisk well.
- Using a spatula, fold in the mixture of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The dough is very thick and seems dry, but that’s OK.
- Scatter the strawberries and fold them into the dough.
- Push about 3/4 of the dough to the side of the bowl. Flatten out the remaining dough on the bottom of the bowl. Using a teaspoon, dot about 1/3 of the jam onto the bottom and sides of the dough. Scrape downd about half of the batter from the sides and cover the dough on the bottom, again doot with 1/3 of the jam. Then repeat the process with the remaining dough on the sides and the remaining jam. You should evenly disperse the jam and diced strawberries without tinting the whole dough in pink. It should stay swirled.
- Scoop the dough into 12 portions and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 4. Assembling The Cookies
- After chilling, flatten out each scoop, then place a frozen cheesecake disc in the center and close the cheesecake in with the cookie dough to cover completely. Shape each cookie dough section into a ball and arrange on prepared cookie sheet, 3 inches apart. If the batter is sticking too much on your palms, wet your hands with water, or you can spray your hands with a little non-stick spray, that should help.
- Slightly flatten each ball and sprinkle granulated sugar on top.
Step 5. Baking
- Bake 13-16 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Keep them on the counter for up to one day. For longer storage, keep them in an air-tight container in the fridge because of the cream cheese filling.
Tips for the Best Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
- Chilling the cookie dough: Chilling is optional, but it makes assembling the cookies easier since the dough won’t stick to your hands as much. It’s best to follow the instructions and chill the dough.
- Getting the perfect shape: to make the cookies into perfectly circular shape, when the cookies are straight out of the oven, scoot a large circular cookie cutter around them.
- Use fresh strawberries. Frozen strawberries will add too much moisture to the dough. But you can use frozen strawberries to make strawberry jam.
- Do not use store-bought jam. I recommend making the thick, homemade strawberry jam. Store-bought jam is not as thick, and the cookies will spread too much. Also, it doesn’t have as strong strawberry flavor.
- Store the cookies on the counter for up to a day or in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
More Delicious Recipes with Fresh Strawberries to Try
- Strawberry Sponge Cake
- Strawberry Jello Lasagna
- Strawberry Icebox Shortcake
- No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake
- No-Bake Strawberry Jello Lasagna
Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
Yield: 12 large cookies 1x
Category: Desserts
Method: Bake
Cuisine: American
Description
These are the best Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies made with fresh strawberries and a creamy cheesecake filling. They taste like strawberry cheesecake packed into a melt-in-your-mouth cookie.
Ingredients
For Strawberry Jam
- 10 oz. (280 grams) fresh strawberries- finely diced
- 3 and ½ Tablespoons (42 grams) light brown sugar
For Cheesecake Filling:
- 6 oz. (170 grams) cream cheese
- 3 Tablespoons (38 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Strawberry Cookies:
- ½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter- melted
- ¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 and ½ cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (130 grams) finely diced strawberries
- 1/4 cup strawberry jam
- granulated sugar for sprinkling on top
Instructions
How To Make Homemade Strawberry Jam
- Wash, dry, and hull the strawberries. Place finely diced strawberries and light brown sugar in a medium pot and stir well.
- Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until very thick, and reduce to about 1/3 -1/4 cup. Set aside to cool. Measure out ¼ cup of strawberry jam, transfer it to a small bowl, and chill it in the fridge. In this recipe, you will use ¼ cup of the jam.
Prepare Cheesecake Filling
- Beat softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, and sugar.
- Line a tray with baking paper and scoop out 12 portions of filling (about one Tablespoon per cookie).
- Slightly flatten each ball and place in the freezer for an hour, or until firm completely.
Make Strawberry Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Bake 6 cookies at a time because the cookies are large.
- In a bowl, combine melted butter, vanilla extract, and sugar. Whisk until dissolved, then add one egg and whisk well.
- Using a spatula, fold in the mixture of flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. The dough is very thick and seems dry, but that’s OK.
- Scatter the strawberries and fold them into the dough.
- Push about 3/4 of the dough to the side of the bowl. Flatten out the remaining dough on the bottom of the bowl. Using a teaspoon, dot about 1/3 of the jam onto the bottom and sides of the dough. Scrape downd about half of the batter from the sides and cover the dough on the bottom, again doot with 1/3 of the jam. Then repeat the process with the remaining dough on the sides and the remaining jam. You should evenly disperse the jam and diced strawberries without tinting the whole dough in pink. It should stay swirled.
- Scoop the dough into 12 portions and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Assembling The Cookies
- After chilling, flatten out each portion of the dough, then place a frozen cheesecake disc in the center. Seal the cheesecake in with the cookie dough to cover completely. Shape each cookie dough section into a ball and arrange on the prepared cookie sheet 4 inches apart. If the batter is sticking too much on your palms, wet your hands with water, or you can spray your hands with a little non-stick spray, and that should help.
- Slightly flatten each ball and sprinkle granulated sugar on top.
- Bake 13-16 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let them cool for about 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. They are too soft to move straight out of the oven.
- Keep them on the counter for up to one day. For longer storage, keep them in an air-tight container in the fridge because of the cream cheese filling.