This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
These Cheesecake Cookies are so creamy and tender. It’s a delicious cookie recipe that’s not too sweet but totally addictive!
We love classic cookie recipes, like The Best Peanut Butter Blossoms and Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. These Cheesecake Cookies are the soon to be classic that everybody will be raving about.
Table of Contents
Cheesecake Cookie Recipe
Cheesecake Cookies are one of my favorite cookie recipes. They are so good! Back when I created them in 2014, I dipped them in chocolate which made them even tastier. This updated version I decided to skip the chocolate and instead give them a nice coating of powdered sugar. These cookies have an ultra creamy texture that resembles a cheesecake, with the subtle flavor of one.
This particular recipe has been pinned over 1 MILLION times and has been the most popular cookie on my site since its creation. However some bakers have had trouble with the cookies, either thinking they were not sweet enough, that the batter was too sticky to work with or that they came out more like biscuits.
I finally set some time aside a few weeks ago to work on the recipe, testing it for those exact things. I didn’t do much to tweak the recipe, other than adding a little bit more sugar. I’m going to address each of those issues in this post.
How To Make Cheesecake Cookies
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. It’s important to preheat the oven so that the cookies will bake evenly.
- Beat room temperature cream cheese and butter together at high speed until the mixture is fluffy and smooth, then add sugar and beat until fully incorporated and fluffy. The mixture should be smooth and not at all gritty since the sugar will melt into the warm butter. Finally beat in eggs and vanilla.
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl with a wire whisk. This helps to ensure that the ingredients are evenly incorporated once you add them to the butter mixture so there are no clumps of salt or baking power because EW.
- Be careful not to over-mix when adding the dry ingredients to the wet because this will release the gluten from the flour resulting in a dense cookie. We’re going for light and fluffy and oh so creamy.
- Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. NOTE – THE BATTER WILL BE STICKY. You can put the batter in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to help it firm up a bit, but it will still be a little sticky and can be difficult to work with. I promise you though, the end result is so worth it!
- Bake for about 10-11 minutes. The cookies should be light in color, not browned, and just starting to brown on the bottom. *The actual length of baking time may vary as oven temperatures do tend to vary as well.
- Cool cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cheesecake Cookie Recipe Tips & FAQs
When making these cookies, you want to be sure and follow the directions exactly. I’ve also updated those instructions to hopefully make them more clear. Here are some tips based on questions and issues from readers.
- “The flavor/sweetness is too subtle.” I personally felt that once the cookies were dipped in chocolate they were sweet enough. I’m assuming that people who didn’t think they were sweet enough were skipping this step. Plain cheesecake isn’t always super sweet, and I liked the cookies the way they were. However to sweeten them up, I added a quarter cup more sugar to the recipe below. They still came out great and had a nice, subtle sweetness that was amplified by the powdered sugar I sprinkled on top. I also cut the vanilla in half, but you could leave it out altogether if you want more of a cream-cheesey flavor. The vanilla just kind of smooths out the flavor profile.
- “They don’t taste like cheesecake.” This one is a tough one to answer because, well, this is not a cheesecake recipe. It’s a cookie recipe. The term “cheesecake” refers more to the creamy texture of the cookie. If you really want more of a tart/tangy flavor, one reader suggested adding lemon juice. Great idea! I’d say if you want to try this method, replace the vanilla with 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice. This will give a more tangy bite which will more closely resemble the flavor of cheesecake.
- “My batter was way too sticky.” I can see where people might have this concern about the batter being sticky. However, although it WAS sticky, I used my Medium Cookie Scoop and the dough released fairly easily for me after a few pumps of the trigger. A few times I had to help it along, but not to the point where they wouldn’t drop at all. These are super moist and tender cookies, so the batter IS going to be a little sticky. Just be prepared for that. The images below show what the batter should look like. And if you watch the video just before the printable recipe, you can see that this cookie recipe really does work!
- “Mine came out biscuit-like and crumbly.” – As stated in the original recipe, it is imperative to NOT over-bake these cookies. In fact, you want it to almost feel like you’ve under-baked them. They should not get brown on the top and should just start to lightly brown on the bottom. Overbaking will result in a crumbly, dry cookie, more resembling a biscuit. Each oven is different and may be actually baking at a different temperature than what you think. I recommend picking up an oven thermometer to test the temperature of your oven. I tested mine recently and realized that it’s about 10 degrees off, which in baking can cause issues. The other issue I think could cause a problem is the mixing. The cream cheese, butter and sugar should be mixed on high speed for a good 2-3 minutes. You can see in the first image how fluffy it is. That’s what you want. Then when you add the flour, its just stirred for enough time to incorporate it. Over-mixing the flour can also result in a dry or crumbly cookie.
Several people have asked about the silicone mats – I got them at Costco a couple of years ago and I doubt they are still available. However I did find something similar on Amazon HERE. (aff link)
Overall, these Cheesecake Cookies are still a favorite cookie recipe in our house. I hope you’ll give these awesome cookies a try – they really are super delicious!
Looking to fill your chocolate fix? Try our Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies! And be sure to check out the Christmas Cheesecake Cookies version for the holidays!
For more delicious cookie recipes, try these:
- Fudgy Dark Chocolate Brownie Cookies
- Magic Bar Cookies
- Chocolate Chip M & M Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
Cheesecake Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 ounces full fat cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Powdered Sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Beat cream cheese and butter together at high speed until fluffy and smooth; 1-2 minutes. Add sugar to the butter mixture and beat until fully incorporated and fluffy; 1-2 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla; 1 minute.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir just until incorporated. Do not over-mix.
- Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart; batter will be sticky. *You can put the batter in the fridge for 10-20 minutes to help it firm up a bit.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes. Cookies should be light in color, not browned, and just starting to brown on the bottom. *Length of baking time may vary from oven to oven.
- Cool cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- If desired, sprinkle with powdered sugar or dip in chocolate once cooled.
Notes
- The vanilla smooths out the flavor, but for a more tart, cheesy flavor, add a teaspoon of lemon juice or no extracts at all.
- Do not overbake. This can cause the cookies to come out more dry and biscuit like.
- Nutritional values and calorie count is per cookie.
- These cookies do not need to be refrigerated. Store at room temperature in a sealed container.
- For more tips, be sure to read the FAQs in the post.
- For chocolate dipped cookies, melt some chocolate in the microwave (chocolate chips or wafers and dip the cooled cookies in the melted chocolate.
Nutrition
Just had to comment, I’m still in the process of making these, and they are just sooo good. I decided to try some graham cracker crumbs on half and they turned out super delicious. I was going to try and make like a cheesecake crust on the bottom, but with the dough being so sticky I just rolled the balls into the crumbs. MMMM.
Hello Kristin. I just made a batch of your cookies and they taste delicious.
Not chewy, not crumbly, just right!!!!!
Gracias…
I made these glorious cookies and dipped them in chocolate and sprinkled them with powdered sugar.
They are a hit. I will be baking them regularly!!!
THANK YOU
CANT WAIT TO TRY THEM
I made these. Awesome. My husband loved them. Said would be good with fresh strawberries on top AKA strawberry shortcake. I was thinking about adding orange zest. Will made again.
I use my home made vanilla flavoring.
OMG!!! I just made them and they are to die for. Delicious if the only way to describe. Thank you
They were perfect for our family members that aren’t very into sweets, but the kids absolutely would not eat them, which, if we’re honest, kind of hurt my feelings. Kids are mean. More cheesecake for the rest of us.
The second batch I made, I added a bit of lemon to the dough and sprinkled graham cracker crumbs over the top of them rather than powdered sugar and that made a HUGE cheesecake-y difference for us.
Granny liked them, though, and that’s really all the approval necessary.
Love the idea of sprinkling graham crackers on top! And I’ll bet the lemon was amazing. And yes, kids can be very mean!
Can these be done without the baking mats or the cookie sheets? I only have the regular baking pans
You would need cookie sheets of some kind. You can get them at the dollar store!
I just found some YUMMO Wilton Cheesecake Flavor discs at Michael’s (and they’re on sale for $1.99 bag!), so go to dip these cookies in it! They also had English Toffee flavor too, that I hadn’t seen before, so might have to try some of each! Bonnie >;0)
Ohhhh great idea!
For more cream cheese I am going to use cream cheese flavoring
I put a thumb print in the middle and added a Hershey kiss to the top.
oh yum!!
Hi,
Can I make these without an electric mixer?
Thanks!
If you have a hand mixer use that. You can beat everything by hand by that gets tiring. But it can be done!
Can you please tell me the name of the cup/sifter that you use to sprinkle the powdered sugar? I would love to get one for myself!
Hi Christine, it was actually my grandmother’s and I’ve looked but can’t seem to find it anywhere. There is a metal one though made by the same company. Mine is plastic. http://amzn.to/2ndsl8Y (affiliate link)
Christine, the powdered sugar sifter looks a lot like the one I got from Pampered Chef. Their products are sold through company representatives, like Tupperware.
I’d like to know do you sift the flour
My husband has been craving orange. I wonder if adding orange (I have orange Esential oil) how it would taste. And if so, how much to use or using fresh squeezed orange and sest.
I think any kind of citrus would be amazing!
My favorite cookie growing up was the Lemon Cooler. Alas, they no longer make them 🙁 It looks just like this cookie! It had little bits of lemon and the powdered sugar had a lemon taste to it. They were not overly sweet but a nice burst of lemon favor. I am going to work on this recipe and see if I can recreate my childhood favorite! Thanks for sharing!
Sounds delicious!
Add a drop of lemon oil to the powdered sugar. Don’t use extract it won’t hold up.
Thanks for the hint. I actually made them over the weekend. I melted some white chocolate and added some lemon essential oils and spread over some parchment paper and froze it for about 15 minutes. Then chopped up the frozen chocolate and added that to my cheesecake cookie dough right before making them into balls and baking. Then with the powdered sugar I added some Country Time Lemonade powder and sifted both together. When the cookies came out of the oven I rolled them in the powdered sugar – lemonade mix and they came out fabulous!!! They are the perfect cookie I was looking for!! Unfortunately, I ate them all! But they were delicious!
I’m an avid baker but these just fell short on flavor for me, too mildly sweet and tasted more like a biscuit than a cookie, had to roll in powdered sugar to make them sweeter, and I could not tell their was any cream cheese in these, no flavor of that at all, overall average cookie.
Hi,
Have not made them yet but very soon I definitely will, they just look so good, but I do have one question: what would half a cup of butter be in grams please. Thank you for these nice recipes.
According to http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/weight/index.htm
a 1/2 cup butter (4 ozs.) = 113.4 grams
These look beautiful. After reading comments, about lacking cheesecake flavor, I will definitely use my cheesecake emulsion in the batter, also loved the thumbprint idea. Please keep giving us gorgeous recipes!!!
Great recipe. I made these with a lemon glaze. Everyone loved them. Here’s my take:
http://whatthedogate.blogspot.com/2017/03/lemon-glazed-cream-cheese-cookies.html