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Soft Vegan Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies – No eggs, No dairy!

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Britt Berlin
  • Prep Time: 60
  • Cook Time: 15
  • Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
  • Yield: 10 1x
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

These soft baked vegan strawberry cheesecake cookies are swirled with a fresh strawberry jam and stuffed with a creamy vanilla bean cheesecake batter- and they’re made entirely without eggs and dairy!

Ingredients

Scale

Strawberry Reduction:

  • 1 pint strawberries, chopped
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Cheesecake Filling:

  • 1/2 cup (113 g) vegan cream cheese, room temperature* (see notes on cream cheese brand)
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch

Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie Batter:

  • ½ cup (113 g) vegan unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup (57 g) dairy-free yogurt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot starch
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour or gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
  • 5 tbsp sugar, for rolling

Instructions

  1. Prep: Gather your ingredients. We’ll first make the strawberry reduction, followed by the cream cheese filling and then the cookie dough.
  2. Make the strawberry reduction: Puree the strawberries, maple syrup, and lemon juice in a blender or food processor until smooth. Then pour the strawberry puree into a saucepan, and heat on high heat until boiling. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and simmer the mixture for 45 minutes, until thickened (while the reduction is cooking, you can move onto the cream cheese section and make that while you’re waiting).  You should yield about 1/3 cup of reduction. Once thickened, pour into a jar and set aside to cool while we make the cookie dough.
    1. Make the cream cheese filling: In a small bowl, use a hand mixer or a whisk to cream together the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and cornstarch.
    2. Chill the cream cheese in balls: Use a teaspoon to measure 10 heaping teaspoon scoops of cream cheese and dollop them onto the parchment paper, spaced apart. Once you’ve scooped all of the cream cheese into little dollops onto the baking sheet, place the baking sheet into the freezer to chill while you finish the reduction.
  3. Make the strawberry cookie dough: In a large bowl, use a whisk to mix together the vegan butter, sugar, dairy-free yogurt, and vanilla extract. Add in the baking soda, cornstarch, and sea salt, and whisk again until evenly distributed. Then add in the flour, and use a silicone spatula to fold the flour into the wet mixture just until mixed.
  4. Fold in the strawberry reduction: Scoop 4 teaspoon sized dollops dropped randomly into the dough, and fold the dough a few times to mix. Then scoop another 2-4 teaspoons of strawberry reduction and fold again randomly into the dough. Repeat another time until you’ve used the reduction, being careful not to over-mix so that you get streaks of strawberry jam throughout the dough rather than fully mixed in.
  5. Chill the cookie dough: While the cookie dough is chilling in the fridge for 20 minutes (or more if too sticky), preheat the oven to 350F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. You can also use the parchment paper lined baking sheet from the cream cheese dollops once you begin scooping the dough. Put the sugar for rolling in a small bowl and set aside.
  6. Shape the strawberry cheesecake cookies: Remove the cream cheese from the freezer. Use a 2 tbsp cookie scoop or scoop 2 tbsp of cookie dough, and form one cookie dough ball. Scoop the dough into your palm and press it flat between your palms. Then take a piece of the cream cheese and place it into the middle of the flattened cookie dough. Then form the dough around the cream cheese and roll gently into a smooth ball. Place the cookie into the sugar and roll it around to evenly coat. Place the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat this for the remaining strawberry cheesecake cookies, creating about 10 cookies.
  7. Chill the cookies: Place the cookies into the freezer to chill for 10 minutes.
  8. Bake the cookies: Place the baking sheets into the oven, and bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden (I baked for exactly 13 minutes). Remove cookies from the oven, and gently push any edges to be rounded. Allow the cookies to cool for 10-15 minutes on the baking sheet.
  9. Enjoy! Enjoy your vegan strawberry cheesecake cookies after cooling or store them in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Notes

Vegan cream cheese brands: PLEASE NOTE! I discuss this in the blog post, but please please do not use Violife here. The brands I have tried here are Kite Hill, Tofutti, and my homemade vegan cream cheese (which uses pea milk- so soy and nut free). Violife does NOT work here- it will disappear into the cookie. I’m not sure about Oatly, but part of my gut thinks it might so please be cautious!

Gluten free: I like King Arthur measure for measure gluten-free flour.

Strawberry reduction: To save time, you can use store bought strawberry jam/preserves instead!

Not interested in strawberries? Swap in blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries 🙂

Find it online: https://thebananadiaries.com/vegan-strawberry-cheesecake-cookies/