Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

My cousin has a freeze drier and gave me some freeze-dried strawberries. They are amazing to eat like candy. We made these cookies, and they were a huge hit. But I thought no one could make them as they wouldn’t have freeze-dried strawberries. Then I found freeze-dried strawberries at Sam’s Club, so now you can make them too.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

1 Box Vanilla Cake Mix (15.25 oz)

8 oz. brick cream cheese, room temperature

½ Cup Butter, room temperature

1 Egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 ½ oz. freeze dried strawberries (about 2 cups or half of the 3 oz. bag)

½ Cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips OR white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large electric mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, butter, egg, and vanilla extract. Beat until combined. Add the cake mix. Mix to combine.

Do a rough chop to the strawberries to make about the size of raspberries. Remove the bowl from mixer and stir by hand, add the freeze-dried strawberries and chocolate chips until evenly incorporated.

Scoop by heaping tablespoons of dough, about the size of a ping-pong ball, onto a cookie sheet. Press down each spoonful of dough to form a disk.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until the edges are set.

Remove cookies from the oven and let them cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Move to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container.

*To make Gluten Free use GF yellow cake mix. Let the dough set for about 30 minutes before you add the strawberries to let the GF flour absorb moisture.

** You could try with freeze-dried raspberries or freeze-dried peaches too.

Jan Dairy Keen