White Chocolate Cheesecake-Filled Red Velvet Cookies

White Chocolate Cheesecake-Filled Red Velvet Cookies

 

Christmas time is here! Let’s face it: this time of the year was made for baking. It’s cold outside, there are tons of fun sprinkles and such in the grocery store, and there are enough cookie exchanges and ugly sweater parties to keep baked goods in high demand all season long. For baking bloggers like us, however, it means we need to step up our game. During the rest of the year, people are happy enough that we’re even making chocolate chip cookies, but when everybody and their moms are baking (quite literally), people expect something more from us, something that will stand out among the crowd. It’s a tough task, but who would we be if we weren’t ready for it?

                Lately red velvet has taken the world by storm. What started as a humble cake is now a type of latte, tea, hot chocolate, cookie, brownie, ice cream, cheesecake, etc. People love red velvet, and after one taste, it is easy to understand why. Red velvet is especially perfect for the holiday season since the colors and the flavors just scream Christmas. While perusing red velvet recipes on Pinterest and some of my favorite baking blogs, I noticed that almost every recipe that wasn’t for a cake or a cupcake involved using boxed red velvet cake mix. CHEATERS!!!!!  Red velvet cake is SO MUCH BETTER when it is homemade, and I believe the same can be said for any other red velvet dessert. As somebody who is morally opposed to using boxed mix 99% of the time, I knew what I had to do: create a red velvet cookie recipe entirely from scratch. And fill it with white chocolate cheesecake filling. Because I can. Trust me, one bite of these cookies, and you’ll never look back at boxed cake mix again. These cookies will be the hit of any holiday party or cookie exchange, I promise J

White Chocolate Cheesecake-Filled Red Velvet Cookies

(Makes about 3 dozen)

For the Cookies:

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup granulated white sugar

2 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar (Don’t freak out! It’s a key ingredient in good red velvet. Just ask Paula Deen.)

Red food coloring

1.       Preheat oven to 375^o F. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, both sugars, baking soda, and salt. Mix well until ingredients are well-blended and there are few to no clumps.

2.       In another bowl, combine melted butter, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar. Beat together until well-blended, and add to ingredients in first bowl. Mix well.

3.       Add red food coloring to dough until dough is desired hue of red. If needed, add one or two drops of blue food coloring to darken. Make sure color is completely mixed evenly into the dough to avoid streakiness.

For the cheesecake filling:

 

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 8-oz package cream cheese

½ cup granulated white sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

4.       For the filling, microwave white chocolate chips for 30 seconds in microwave, stir. Continue microwaving for 10 second intervals as needed, stirring in between each, until chips are just melted. Add cream cheese and sugar to melted chocolate, beat until ingredients are combined but not gooey. Stir in flour.

 

5.       Roll level tablespoons of the cookie dough into balls. Divide each ball into two halves, with one juuuusssst slightly larger than the other. Flatten the smaller half into a circle on a well-greased cookie sheet. Spoon a small amount of filling onto the round.

 

6.       Flatten the slightly larger half into a circle and place over the bottom half and filling. Press edges together to seal.

7.       Repeat until cookie sheet is full, leaving at least a couple of inches between each cookie. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes until edges are set but not too browned (Mine all baked in 9 minutes no problem).

8.       Let cool and devour!

These cookies have received rave reviews from so many people. They are easy to make, and they look just so dang festive! If you want to dress them up a bit, you can drizzle melted white chocolate on top and shake on a few festive sprinkles J I hope you enjoy these as much as I (and everybody else) did, and remember: When in doubt, bake!

<3 Lauren