Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Cookies
Scroll to find recipe and step by step instructions.
Servings Size:
makes approximately 12-14 cookies
Measurements:
(Recipe in grams below!)
1 cup butter
1/3 cup of packed brown sugar (light or dark)
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp molasses (optional)
1 tbsp corn syrup (optional)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
2 & 1/4 cup of All-purpose flour
1 tbsp espresso powder (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt (optional if you used salted butter)
Cream Cheese Filling
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Topping
approximately 3/4 cup granulated/white sugar (for coating)
What Cocoa Powder to Use?
There are so many types of cocoa powder on the market, and it usually depends solely on the color. I tend to use special dark cocoa powder, because it gives your dessert a darker color.
Store brand and/or the natural cocoa powder gives your cookie a lighter brown color. Most cocoa powder give a similar taste, except for black cocoa powder.
What is black cocoa powder? Black cocoa powder has less of a cocoa powder taste but is used in the widely known Oreo cookies. This cocoa powder is usually not found on the shelves, but is such a staple piece in baking when trying to make desserts black, without using food coloring.
Filling Cookies
To fill cookies without it oozing out is simple—thick cookie, thick filling. There is no other way around it, honestly. If you have a thinner filling, it is necessary to freeze or completely chill your filling. The cream cheese and peanut butter filling in this recipe is thick, but it is still necessary to chill your filling completely before stuffing your cookies.
With the cookie dough part, it is necessary to make a thick dough that will not stick to your fingers much. If your dough comes out slightly sticky, add more flour. Add about 2-3 tablespoons at a time until it is not sticky, but still a soft moldable texture.
Your environment temperature may have a slight effect on how your dough comes out so do not rely solely on the exact gram measurements in the recipe, if your cookie dough has an odd consistency.
Why measure in grams?
If you ask any bakery how they measure, most will say they measure in grams. Measuring by weight is more reliable for desserts because some recipes don’t specify if you should pack your ingredients and do not take into account how different people measure their ingredients.
A common mistake people make in measuring ingredients is when measuring brown sugar. Brown sugar is clumpier than normal sugar because it is mixed with molasses. 100 grams of white sugar is equivalent to 100 grams of packed brown sugar—though most people don’t pack their brown sugar the same way, so you will most likely not get the same measurement unless using a scale.
Food scales are such an amazing and cheap investment to make for your kitchen because they will allow you to copy recipes perfectly because they are far more reliable and allow you to not use as many dishes! Click here to order a food scale!
Measurements in Grams
215 grams salted/unsalted butter
65 grams brown sugar
150 grams white/granulated sugar
1 large egg (60 grams)
4 grams vanilla extract
20 grams molasses (optional)
20 grams corn syrup (optional)
70 grams cocoa powder
275 grams All-purpose flour
6 grams espresso powder
6 grams baking soda
2 grams baking powder
Cream Cheese Filling
4 oz cream cheese (226 grams)
120 grams peanut butter
50 grams powdered sugar
2 grams vanilla
Topping
200 grams white/granulated sugar (for outside coating)
Instructions
Step 1
Preheat oven to convection 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix cream cheese with peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Once well combined, scoop cream cheese in 1 tbsp balls (14-16 grams) onto a parchment paper lined tray/plate. Place this in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. (Should come out to about 12 cream cheese balls.)
To start cookie dough, beat room temperature butter in stand mixer/by hand for 3-5 minutes (or until butter turns off-white).
Step 2
Add in brown sugar and white sugar to your butter. Beat the sugar with the butter until the mixture is fluffy (about 2 minutes).
Step 3
Add your large egg and stir into mixture.
Mix in vanilla extract, corn syrup (optional), and molasses (optional).
Step 4
Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and salt to form your dough. If using a stand mixer, mix on low. If mixing by hand, use a spatula.
Step 5
Use a 1/3 cup scoop (approximately 80 grams) (or however much your heart desires) and place a single ball of dough on baking tray. THIS IS YOUR TEST COOKIE! Always start with baking a single cookie, to make sure you didn’t forget an ingredient and/or your oven isn’t too hot (some ovens have hot-spots or cook things quicker/slower than others). This is also a good indicator of how much your cookie will spread.
If your test cookie came out flat, add a couple more tablespoons of flour to allow filling to stay in the center of the cookie when baking. This cookie should not spread much (allows filling to stay in the center).
When your cream cheese + peanut butter balls are frozen well, flatten out your cookie dough in your palm and place 1 ball in the center. Fold the cookie dough around until it is well secured in the center.
Pour sugar into a separate bowl and roll cookie dough in.
Step 6
Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes (for 1/3 cup scoop).
Step 7
For perfectly circular cookies, use a circular bowl/cup/cookie cutter and swirl around your fresh cookie to make edges clean. Then let cookies sit on tray for about 10 minutes before removing.
Step 8
You can eat these fresh and/or put these in the fridge to store up to 10 days!