These raspberry cheesecake cookies are soft cookies with cheesecake flavor and bits of freeze-dried raspberries with crushed cookies.
The balls of cookie dough are scooped-out and filled with cream cheese balls, sealed and baked until golden brown on the edges and chewy in the center with pockets of cream cheese filling!
Top these raspberry cream cheese cookies with a little bit of crushed raspberries before serving!
Love to bake with cream cheese? Check out our Blueberry Bread, Pumpkin Cookies, and Spritz Cookies next!
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🛒Ingredients
- Crushed cookies - Use Lotus cookies, Graham cracker crumbs, or something similar.
- Unsalted butter - The salt content in various butter brands varies. Depending on the brand, different amount of salt is added according to their recipes. I like to use unsalted butter in baking, so I can control the salt content myself.
- Sugar - I’ve used white sugar and brown sugar for the cookie dough.
- Eggs - Large-sized eggs at room temperature.
- Flour - All-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum.
- Baking soda - Check the expiry date to ensure a good rise in the cookies.
- Vanilla extract - Almond extract could be used instead. Choose natural and not the artificial kinds.
- Freeze-dried crushed raspberries - I don’t recommend using fresh raspberries or fresh berries in these cookies as they add too much moisture. Other cookies such as Raspberry or Strawberry cookies can be made with both as they have no cream cheese in the batter.
- Salt - Omit if using salted butter. For the best natural flavor, always choose kosher or sea salt.
- Cream cheese - Use regular cream cheese or the thicker type for the cheesecake filling.
- Confectioners’ sugar
For the full list of ingredients, please scroll down to where you'll find the recipe card.
🥣Instructions
Make cream cheese filling by combining cream cheese and confectioners sugar.
Whisk until thoroughly combined and scoop 12 about 1 ½ teaspoon balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze until it is properly frozen and hard.
In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugars.
Beat the butter mixture (electric hand mixer or food processor) on low speed for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
Gradually add egg and vanilla. Mix on low until combined. Set aside.
In a separate large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Whisk to combine, and then in batches, add the wet ingredients to the bowl. Beat on low until just combined.
Fold in the crushed raspberries and lotus cookies (or Graham crackers). Freeze the sticky batter for 30 minutes to an hour until the dough is hard enough to form firm balls (but not frozen hard).
Once hardened, form the cookie dough balls with 2 tablespoons of dough each. These cookie dough balls should look larger than the average cookie.
If the cookie dough balls become soft again, add them back to the freezer to harden them slightly.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Arrange the dough balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat, leaving them about 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet as these cookies will spread quite a few inches.
Scoop out about 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons of dough out of the top center of each cookie dough ball, leaving the edges a little higher.
Keep the scooped-out dough pieces next to each ball (you’ll be using this in the next step). The indentation should be deep enough to fit the frozen cream cheese balls.
Remove the cream cheese balls from the freezer.
Fill each cookie dough ball with a frozen cream cheese ball and top it with the scooped-out dough.
Pinch the sides to seal the cream cheese inside.
These should look like tall cookie balls. While making these, the cookie dough will become soft and sticky again, so you’d need to pop them back into the freezer until they harden before baking.
When ready, bake the assembled cookie balls for 11-12 minutes (the time will vary from oven to oven). Remove the cookies from the oven and decorate them with a sprinkle of crushed raspberries on top.
Allow the cookies to set and cool completely before serving. Serve with a tall glass of milk, tea, coffee, or crumbled on top of ice cream.
📋Tips
- Be careful not to create an indent in the cookies that is too deep or wide, as this will allow the cream cheese to pour out while baking and ruin the cookies.
- Always use high-quality ingredients, especially cream cheese, and raspberries.
- Allow the cream cheese to soften at room temperature for easier mixing with the confectioner’s sugar for the cream cheese filling.
- It’s important to chill the cream cheese filling balls for easier assembling of these cookies. Likewise, freezing the cookie dough will help reduce the stickiness of the cookie dough so that you can roll the dough into balls. Add the assembled cookie balls with cream cheese filling to the freezer to harden before baking.
- Gently fold the crushed raspberries and Lotus cookies into the cookie dough towards the end of the mixing process. Be careful not to overmix these ingredients, as the raspberries can turn the batter pink.
- Using cookie scoops for the cream cheese filling and the cookie dough balls is a great way to create uniform-shaped cookies that bake evenly. Use a smaller cookie scoop for the cream cheese filling and a larger cookie scoop for the cookie dough balls.
- The cookie dough balls must be large enough to fit the cream cheese balls. You may want to test a few sizes of cookie scoops with the cookie dough and frozen cream cheese balls before shaping all of the cookie dough balls.
- These cookies only need 10-12 minutes of baking at 350F. Since all ovens differ, I recommend checking on the cookies to ensure that they turn a light golden brown color on the edges and that they don’t overbake and become dry.
- Cool the cookies on a cooling rack before transferring them to an airtight container or serving them. This will help them to set and not fall apart.
- For added decadence, drizzle melted white chocolate over the cooled cookies before serving for white chocolate raspberry cheesecake cookies.
- Consider other add-ins to these chewy cookies, such as white chocolate chips. Raspberry jam could also be added to the creamy cheesecake filling for extra raspberry flavor.
✅ EXPERT TIP Allow the cookies to set and cool completely before eating. This way the cream cheese will set and won't pour out of the cookies easily.
Storage Instructions
- 🍱To Store. Allow the cookies to cool completely and store them in an airtight container or mason jar at room temperature for up to 1-2 days. For longer storage, keep them in the fridge for up to about a week.
- 🥶Freezing. These cookies freeze beautifully! Follow the same steps as above and freeze for up to 3 months. Let thaw at room temperature.
🤷Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Brown sugar adds moisture to cookie dough which makes the inside of the baked cookie chewy.
Once baked and cooled, keep the cookies in an airtight container to prevent them from drying out.
Another trick is to place a slice of fresh white bread in the cookie container. The moisture in the white bread is absorbed by the cookies, helping them to remain soft and moist while not affecting the flavor of the cookies.
Cream cheese cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. These types of cookies usually don’t contain enough cream cheese to make it necessary for them to be stored in the fridge like other cream cheese desserts would, such as cheesecake or baked goods with cream cheese frosting.
Yes, sadly, it did. But now you can make your own copycat subway cookies from the comfort of your kitchen!
⏲️ Recommended Equipment
- Cookie sheet
- Silicone baking mat or brown parchment paper
- Wire cooling rack
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Airtight food containers
- Mixing bowls
- Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
I hope you enjoy these raspberry cheesecake cookies! Happy Baking!
Rita
More Berry Cookies
- Strawberry Shortcake Cookies
- White Chocolate Raspberry Cookies
- White Chocolate Chip Strawberry Cookies
- Valentine Whipped Shortbread Cookies
- Strawberry Galette
❤️Did you make this recipe? Please be sure to leave a rating and a comment below. Thank you!❤️
Raspberry Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients
- ¼ cup crushed lotus cookies or graham crackers or similar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 3 cups all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup freeze-dried crushed raspberries
- ¼ teaspoon salt omit if using salted batter
- 6 oz cream cheese thicker kind
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- Make cream cheese filling by combining cream cheese and confectioners sugar. Whisk until thoroughly combined and scoop 12 about 1 ½ teaspoon balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze until it is properly frozen and hard.
- In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine butter and sugars. Beat the butter mixture (electric hand mixer or food processor) on low speed for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
- Gradually add egg and vanilla. Mix on low until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, combine dry ingredients. Whisk to combine, and then add the wet ingredients to the bowl in batches. Beat on low until just combined.
- Fold in the crushed raspberries and lotus cookies (or Graham crackers). Freeze the sticky batter for 30 minutes to an hour until the dough is hard enough to form firm balls (but not frozen hard). Once hardened, form the cookie dough balls with 2 tablespoons of dough each. You can also use a cookie scoop that is 4 tablespoons worth of dough. These cookie dough balls will look big.
- If the cookie dough balls become soft again by the time you have shaped all of the dough, add them back to the freezer to harden them slightly.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Arrange the dough balls on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a baking mat, leaving them about 2-3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet as these cookies will spread quite a few inches.
- Scoop out about 1 to 1 ½ teaspoons of dough out of the top center of each cookie dough ball, leaving the edges a little higher. Keep the scooped-out dough pieces next to each ball (you’ll be using this in the next step). The indentation should be deep enough to fit the frozen cream cheese balls.
- Remove the cream cheese balls from the freezer. Fill each cookie dough ball with a frozen cream cheese ball and top it with the scooped-out dough, pinching the sides to seal the cream cheese inside. These should look like tall cookie balls. While making these, the cookie dough will become soft and sticky again, so you’d need to pop them back into the freezer until they harden before baking.
- When ready, bake the assembled cookie balls for 11-12 minutes (the time will vary from oven to oven). Remove the cookies from the oven and decorate them with a sprinkle of crushed raspberries o top.
- Allow the cookies to set and cool completely before serving. Serve with a tall glass of milk, tea, coffee, or crumbled on top of ice cream.
Notes
- Be careful not to create an indent in the cookies that is too deep or wide, as this will allow the cream cheese to pour out while baking and ruin the cookies.
- Using cookie scoops for the cream cheese filling and the cookie dough balls is a great way to create uniform-shaped cookies that bake evenly. Use a smaller cookie scoop for the cream cheese filling and a larger cookie scoop for the cookie dough balls.
- Gently fold the crushed raspberries and Lotus cookies into the cookie dough towards the end of the mixing process. Be careful not to overmix these ingredients, as the raspberries can turn the batter pink.
- It’s important to chill the cream cheese filling balls for easier assembling of these cookies. Likewise, freezing the cookie dough will help reduce the stickiness of the cookie dough so that you can roll the dough into balls. Add the assembled cookie balls with cream cheese filling to the freezer to harden before baking.
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Delicious cheesecake cookies are sweet, crumbly and creamy - perfect little sweet treat!