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Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies



Whoever came up with the idea of using cake mix to make cookies deserves mad props. Not only is cake mix much cheaper than buying pre-made cookie dough, but cookies made from cake mix stay soft and chewy for days, something that many of you probably already know, never happens with cookies from a tube. What's also great about making cookies from cake mix is that the possibilities are endless; you can experiment with different flavored mixes and add-ins, to cater to your taste.


I saw these cookies on Two Peas & Their Pod and I couldn't have gotten in the car any faster to go buy a box of red velvet cake mix. Of course, I would find it out of stock. Of course. This is red velvet we're talking about. America's latest obsession. An obsession that I honestly never understood until I tried one of these cookies, warm out of the oven, oozing with cream cheese filling.

Contrary to what I believed for a very long time, red velvet is not just chocolate cake with red food coloring. No, ladies and gentlemen, it's much more than that. Granted, I'm tasting the cookie version, I can still vouch for the decadence and comforting richness that keeps people coming back for more. I get it now. That said, these cookies are huge, so you'll probably want to stop at just one...if you're able to resist.


I stopped at one...and a half....and a quarter. Those extra three fourths of a cookie were totally for taste-testing purposes (I almost kept a straight face saying that). It was crucial that I eat them in order to provide all of you with an accurate description of how off the hook these cookies are, which is pretty off the hook. If it isn't their indulgent red velvet flavor that keeps you coming back for more, it's their spot on cream cheese filling that brings everything together in gastronomic harmony. Did I mention that they're crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside? Perfection I tell you.


But the absolute best part about these cookies has nothing to do with their texture or taste. No, it's the fact that they are so incredibly easy to make, requiring only a few ingredients and minimal preparation.


So what are you waiting for?

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

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Ingredients:

For the cookies:
1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
pinch of vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

For the cheesecake filling:
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese and only took it out 10 minutes beforehand)
2 cups powdered sugar
pinch of vanilla powder (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 and 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted (If you don't have white chocolate chips, or if you have an issue with melting them, you can simply drizzle some melted vanilla frosting, it's just as delicious)


Directions:

For the cookies:
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix and flour. Whisk together until clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cake mix with the flour, eggs, oil and vanilla and mix until smooth. The dough will be oily. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

For the cheesecake filling:
Using a hand mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out balls of cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours. (I started off making teaspoon balls and realized halfway that I was going to have a lot of filling left over, so I made my balls bigger. If you do this, make sure to use enough dough to completely cover the balls of filling so it doesn't leak out. You can also just make more than 10 teaspoon balls, and consequently, make smaller cookies to use up all of the balls.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray a large baking sheet with cooking spray, or line it with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.

To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a ball of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. (If the dough starts to crack when you're wrapping it around the filling, don't freak out. If you just sort of cup the dough between both your palms, it will pull it back together). Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Only bake 3 cookies at a time because the cookies are very large and will spread.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes or until they begin to crackle. Let them cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. Serve and enjoy!

Adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod

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35 comments:

  1. I had some of these babies. They are so worth every second of baking! Amazing!

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  2. My cheesecake feeling is so runny I can't scoop out into balls

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  3. Did you put the filling in the freezer for two hours as instructed?

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  4. The scooping out into balls step is before the freezer, correct?

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  5. Yes, you're right. Hmm I wonder why your filling was runny then? I think the amount of powdered sugar used is more than enough to give it a thick consistency to scoop into balls.

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  6. I'm so making these tonight for my roomies! Thank you so much!

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  7. I'm so excited to try this tonight! However, I live in Wyoming and the altitude is 7220 feet above sea level. Are there any adjustments I should make to compensate for the altitude? Thank you! :)

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  8. I made these last night for my husbands birthday, and left them in a cookie container all night like I would with normal cookies, Should I have refrigerated then because of the cream cheese filling? Or is it good because it was baked? I haven't given any to my family today, but they're dying to finish these cookies off.

    -Emily

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  9. Emily, I think they'll be fine stored in an airtight container. I had my doubts about leaving them out too but the original creator of the recipe said it's okay to leave them out as long as they're in a container. You could store them in the fridge just to be on the super safe side though.

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  10. Cecilia, I'm honestly not sure about adjusting for altitude.

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  11. Do you make the cake mix like the instructions? Or just add the cake mix powder to the rest of your ingredients?

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  12. I just add the cake mix powder to the rest of the ingredients.

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  13. My filling is too runny as well. It just flattens on the plate as soon as I put it on

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  14. Hmm that's weird. I have a step by step tutorial of this on my Facebook page. Check it out--it might help.

    http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.354947221208199.73467.345255778844010&type=3

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  15. Is the vanilla powder necessary?

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  16. Well, if you're referring to vanilla in general, yes the vanilla gives the cookies a nice flavor. But you don't have to use vanilla powder, per se. I only use vanilla powder for religious reasons (vanilla extract has alcohol in it), but you can use vanilla extract if you'd like. Just use 1 teaspoon of it in both the cookie dough and the filling.

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  17. Do you have any good recipes for Red Velvet? Would love to make this but where I live, they don't sell R.V. mix so that means I'd have to make my own. I really love the recipe by the way! It looks really good!!

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  18. Illarae, unfortunately I don't have a Red Velvet recipe. But if I do come across a good one, I'll be sure to post it.

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  19. Just wanted to add my two cents... I, too, noticed that my cheesecake mixture was very runny and wondered if there was a correlation between my use (and I'd imagine the others use) of vanilla extract as opposed to the vanilla powder, as the extra moisture could affect the consistency... I just made globs and tried to freeze it not sure if it'll work on not just yet.

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  20. I used Fat Free Cream Cheese, and it was way too runny. I think that is the culprit. Always best to use Original Cream Cheese for baking... I just usually forget about it.

    I'm going to bake a bunch of little red velvet cookies, then put them together like a sandwich with cream cheese filling instead. Should be tasty!

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  21. I just made these this evening! I didn't have any problem with the constancy of the filling; I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese, since that's what the author used. I also made mine a TON smaller. I made my cheesecake balls like olive size. The cookies looked like little meatballs before they were baked! I baked them for a little less time and they still seem perfect! I will definitely be making these again!

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  22. These are my favorite cookies in the entire world! I love them so much, if I wasn't so lazy I would make a fresh batch daily. They're AMAZING!

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  23. Stumbled on these through Pinterest and tried them tonight. Quite tasty! I probably used a slight bit more cream cheese since I cut a slice off the "loaf" I buy in bulk, blended it with the sugar and just made 1 tsp. size balls until it was all gone - which gave me about 50. Then I used a standard size cookie scoop to portion the red velvet dough. I think the ratio of dough:filling is really good this way. In the end I had 25 cookies (typical for me from cake mix cookies) and a bunch of leftover cream cheese that I'll add to a different batch of cookies next since it's all portioned out already. Hubs liked them, neighbors raved.

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  24. Hi, I have a question, I know the purpose of this recipe is that they are "red velvet" cookies, but where I live they don't sell a red velvet cake mix, do you think it's possible to do it with regular super moist betty crocker cake mix instead and just substitute?

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  25. Yes, since red velvet is essentially chocolate cake, you could probably use a chocolate cake mix and add a couple of drops of red food coloring to it so it can be red.

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  26. WOW! Ive made this once and Im bringing it to Thanksgiving Dinner! My family thinks its a bit tooo sweet but I absolutely love them! I do have a couple things that I learned the second time around that might be of some help..

    1) The recipe calls for mixing with a blender/mixer, DO IT! I dont have access to either as Im getting ready to move, so doing it by hand was not exactly fun, but it can be done
    2) Besides remembering to SOFTEN the Cream Cheese (I totally forgot the 2nd time around), if you batter is a little too runny, pop it in the freezer before balling. I did it then balled with a cookie scooper. The first time I tried to do it by hand and everything stuck to my gloves despite the flour coating.

    But despite those two, I do have a question for anyone whos had this problem.. they come out a bit big causing the outside a bit crunchy and the centers almost not cooked. Do i just need to make them smaller??

    Thank you thank you thank you for the recipe!

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  27. My filling was too runny also to form into balls. I used a mini muffin pan to put them in and froze them that way. They weren't very round but it worked.

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  28. Do I want to transfer the cake batter to plastic or just put the whole bowl in the fridge ?

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  29. Made up the dough and filling yesterday and left them in the fridge/freezer overnight. The dough was a bit crumbly this morning, but became easier to work with as I formed it into little balls. There was no way I could make a patty large enough to fill and then fold over on itself without the dough crumbling, so I did two patties with the filling in between and pressed the edges together. I had almost half of the filling left over though. I didn't think I could fit anymore filling into the cookies. This recipe made me 14 large cookies - haven't had any yet, but they look and smell delicious!

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  30. @Anonymous, if you wanna just put the whole bowl in the fridge, just make sure you cover it with plastic.

    @Becky, yes the filling ends up being more than enough for the cookies. Next time just make half of the filling recipe. Hope you like them and Happy Thanksgiving!

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  31. I don't think I would make this again, at least not this way. I don't know why mine turned out so bad when i followed the directions exactly . my dough was so sticky it was almost impossible to form a cookie and I used a half a teaspoon of cream cheese filling and it still spilled out and burned in the oven. Next time I'm gonna follow the cake box directions and just add a tiny bit of filling.

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  32. Wow, so appealing. Thanks for linking this in to Food on Friday. Cheers

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  33. any chance of getting a "from scratch" recipe of red velvet? Starting the ingredient list with a box of something that you cannot actually get in Europe is somewhat dissapointing...

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  34. @anonymous from Europe: here is a red velvet recipe I have used in the past and I find that it is fairly easy and turns out well but the caveat is that im not sure how you would adapt it to the cookies http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/2008/12/red-velvet-cake-with-cream-cheese.html

    I just finished making these and there are absolutely wonderful! I did adapt the filling since it was a little runny as other people posted but being a pro at homemade frosting and icing I know that it really is not an exact science on how much confectioners sugar so I just added a little bit more! overall awesome recipe!

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  35. after making these and also having the same problem that the filling was too runny, i just added more powdered suger and mixed it in with a spoon, until i achievied the right consistancy. perfect cookies! made about 12

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