Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

I originally found the recipe for these amazing cookies this past Christmas from this site. I make mine a little smaller than the original recipe, yet they are still large in size.  I got about 20 cookies from the batch rather than the 10 giant ones of the original recipe.  Stay tuned in the future for some variations that I just thought of today.  How about German Chocolate Cheesecake cookies or Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Cookies?  Ok, I could go on and on.  As time permits, I will get more creative and then share my findings here.  I love the way the white chocolate drizzle looks, but I left it off this time.

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Yield: 20 Cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

• 1 box 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 oz 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:

To make cookies, in a large bowl combine cake mix and flour. Whisk until clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

To make the cheesecake filling, using a mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into balls until you have 20. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

To assemble the cookies, I used about 3/4 of muffin scoop of red velvet cookie dough and flattened in my hands.  (A muffin scoop is about 1/4 cup, but I made mine a little smaller than that.)  Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Only bake a few cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.

For the white chocolate drizzle, melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens.