Strawberry Cream Cheese Cookies

I made these strawberry cream cheese cookies two days ago, and they are AMAZING! They taste like a strawberry cake but in a cookie form! Thanks to the cream cheese and the strawberries, the texture is very soft!

Because the cookies are soft, they are best kept refrigerated in an airtight container. Not only will this preserve them longer, it will also keep these soft cookies intact and keep the strawberries taste fresh!

I’ve baked these cookies using 2 methods, both of which work great,
Method # 1 For cookies in an almost perfect round shape: flattening the cookie dough on the plate and then placing it in the freezer for 30-40 minutes, roll teaspoonfuls of cold cookie dough in balls and drop them on cookie sheet to bake.

Method # 2 For more rough looking cookie:
Not involve keeping the cookie dough in the freezer: just drop the cookie dough by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet and bake.

Strawberry cream cheese cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 34 minutes
Yield: 24 cookies
Serving Size: 2 cookies

Ingredients

• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened (room temperature)
  
• 4 ounces butter (1 stick), softened (room temperature)
  
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  
• 1 large egg
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 1 cup strawberries, sliced in very small pieces

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil (no need to spray it with non-stick spray).
2. In a large bowl, using electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and sugars until light in color. Note that the cream cheese and the butter should be of room temperature, NOT MELTED. Add an egg and vanilla extract, and continue beating until very creamy.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder and combine. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and continue beating just enough to combine.
4. Using spatula, fold in sliced strawberries (strawberries should be chopped in very small bites). At this point, you can bake the cookies using one of the two methods below:
   Method 1
5. Flatten and spread out the cookie dough (with chopped strawberries already folded in) on a plate and place in the freezer for about 30-40 minutes to harden.
6. After the cookie dough has hardened (but not frozen) just enough so that it doesn’t stick to your hands and is easy to handle, using the palms of your hands, roll cookie dough into cookie balls and drop them on the baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake for about 14 minutes until cookies brown a little around the edges.
7. Cool the cookies by removing the parchment paper or aluminum foil (with cookies on it) from the baking sheet onto a wire rack.
   Method 2
8. Using a teaspoon, just drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls on the baking sheet, leaving about 1.5 inches between cookies. Bake for about 14 minutes until cookies brown a little around the edges.
9. Same as in method 1, cool the cookies by removing the parchment paper or aluminum foil (with cookies on it) from the baking sheet onto a wire rack.

Adapted from About.com Southern Food