Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

These cookies seem almost too good to be true. The have been pinned on my recipe board on pinterest.com for months now and I still haven't had a chance to make them. They seem easy enough to make and don't require a lot of time in the oven. There is some prepping involved with them though, so they may not be a good idea if you are crunched for time. I have embedded a Link to the original blog post in case anyone wants to read it as well. The link provided will take you to the same blog that was originally pinned to pinterest. 

 

Red velvet cookies with a creamy cheesecake filling drizzled with white chocolate. 

 

Yield: 10 giant cookies                  Cook Time: 11-13 minutes

Ingredients:
    For the cookies: 
                     1 box of red velvet cake mix

                     2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 

                     2 large eggs 

                     1/2 cup canola oil

                     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    For the cheesecake filling:

                     4 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature

                     2 cups powdered sugar

                     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    For the white chocolate drizzle:

                    1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (melted)

Directions:

1. To making the cookies: In a large bowl combine the cake mix and flour. Whisk until all clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. (This may also be done with a hand mixer.) Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.


2. To make the cheesecake filling: Use a mixer to combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the filling onto a plate. Make 10 evenly sized balls of the filling onto a plate and place the plate in the freezer. Freeze this for at least 2 hours.


3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, wax paper, or a silicone baking mat. To assemble the cookies: Take about 1/4 cup of the red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll it into a ball and place it on the prepared baking sheet. Only bake 3 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread! Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle on the top. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.


4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. Serve and enjoy!


Note: If you are going to store the cookies for more than a day, you may want to keep them in the refrigerator. If you don't want giant cookies, you can make the cookies smaller... just use less dough and filling. Also, make sure you completely wrap the cookie dough around the filling before baking so the filling doesn't leak out.