I love cheesecake. Creamy, dreamy, thick, and scrumptious cheesecake. Topped with raspberry sauce, stuffed with snickers, swirled with salted caramel, or infused with pumpkin (hello, pumpkin swirl cheesecake and even no-bake pumpkin cheesecake!). I like cheesecake just about every.single.way. So much so, I even created recipes for mini cheesecakes, no-bake cheesecake, no-bake cheesecake jars, and easy cheesecake pie. Cheesecake options galore!
But I’ve never had cheesecake in… cookie form. And to be quite honest, I never thought I could actually eat cheesecake in a cookie form. Unless it was cookie dough cheesecake. Chunks of cookie dough IN a cheesecake. OMG. Can someone bake that and send it to me please? I digress.
The thought came to me one day. Can I replace butter with something other than… butter… in a cookie recipe? Applesauce or mashed banana would certainly make the cookie healthier, but that’s not what I was looking for.
And sure, shortening would work and does wonders in cookie recipes—makes a cookie nice and puffy! But I wanted something a little different. Something I’ve never tried before. Thicker and creamier than butter, I figured cream cheese would make one stand out cookie. I’ve never used it in a cookie recipe before, so I was a tad skeptical at first. And I most certainly did not want to ruin perfectly good cookie dough with a recipe flop. Who has the time for a recipe failure? Not me.
I crushed up 18 double stuffed Oreos and tossed them into the cookie dough. Keep the regular Oreos for Oreo balls and Oreo cookie crust. For these cookies, Double Stuf = only way to go. I kept some of the Oreo pieces a bit large because I wanted to be able to taste the chunks rather than have crumbs throughout each bite.
I chilled the dough for 24 hours. I find that the longer I chill cookie dough, the chewier and thicker the cookie will be. Chill the dough for at least one hour if you’re strapped for time. 😉
I plopped 12 large mounds of dough onto a silicone baking mat and crossed my fingers the first batch would turn out OK. Well thank my lucky stars! These cookies came out creamy, dreamy, chewy, and unbelievably soft! Can you really go wrong with cream cheese & butter? I think not.
And aren’t they cute? I love the Oreo chunks & speckles.
If you love cheesecake and you love Oreos, you’ll go nuts for these guys. It’s two desserts in one! I couldn’t stop tasting them. Quality control, people.
And for your next Oreo-inspired dessert, try cookies and cream cake or cookies and cream pie next!
Replacing some butter with cream cheese makes gives each bite a taste of cheesecake. These indulgent cookies won't last long!
