I made these cookies for Valentine's Day and they are amazing! Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1/4 cup of packed brown sugar (light or dark)
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp strawberry extract
- 1 tsp red/pink food coloring (optional)
- 2 1/2 cups of All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp of salt (optional if you used salted butter)
Cream Cheese Filling
- 1 cup cream cheese
- 1/8 cup white/granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Topping
- approximately 1 cup granulated/white sugar (for coating)
Makes 11-12 cookies
Step 1
- Preheat oven to convection 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Mix cream cheese with sugar and vanilla with whisk (by hand) or whisk attachment (on stand mixer). Once well combined, scoop cream cheese in 1 tbsp balls onto a parchment paper lined tray/plate. Place this in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. (Should come out to about 12 cream cheese balls.)
- To start cookie dough, beat room temperature butter in stand mixer/by hand for 3-5 minutes (or until butter turns off-white).
Step 2
- Add in brown sugar and white sugar to your butter. Beat the sugar with the butter until the mixture is fluffy (about 2 minutes).
Step 3
- Add your large egg and stir into mixture.
- Mix in vanilla extract, strawberry extract, and red/pink food coloring (optional).
Step 4
- Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to form your dough. If using a stand mixer, mix on low. If mixing by hand, use a spatula.
Step 5
- Use a 1/3 cup scoop (approximately 80 grams) (or however much your heart desires) and place a single ball of dough on baking tray. THIS IS YOUR TEST COOKIE! Always start with baking a single cookie, to make sure you didn’t forget an ingredient and/or your oven isn’t too hot (some ovens have hot-spots or cook things quicker/slower than others). This is also a good indicator of how much your cookie will spread.
- If your test cookie came out flat, add a couple more tablespoons of flour to allow cream cheese to stay in the center of the cookie when baking.
- If your cream cheese balls are frozen well, flatten out your cookie dough in your palm and place 1 cream cheese ball in the center. Fold the cookie dough around until it is well secured in the center.
- Pour sugar into a separate bowl and roll cookie dough in.
Step 6
- Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes (for 1/3 cup scoop).
Step 7
- For perfectly circular cookies, use a circular bowl/cup/cookie cutter and swirl around your fresh cookie to make edges clean. Then let cookies sit on tray for about 10 minutes before removing.
Step 8
- You can eat these fresh and/or put these in the fridge to store up to 10 days!
More info here.