This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kraft.
Cookies are always, always, always a big hit around my house. As I’ve said before, my husband eats them for breakfast. He puts on his sad face and whines if a few days pass without cookies in the house. It’s pitiful.
When I was contacted to create recipes for PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese I knew right away that a cookie just had to be one of the recipes. I’ve made Cheesecake Cookies before, but I wanted something a bit different.
I checked out a few of the cooking videos on the Real Women of Philadelphia website to see what everyone else had come up with. There are some amazing recipes on that site! And, yes, let’s not forget that by submitting your own cooking video you are entered to win a chance to meet Paula Deen (my butter-lovin’ hero), contribute to a cookbook, and win $25,000.
Ultimately, with all the recent cookie stuffing I’ve seen around the food blogosphere (and right here on this blog), I thought I’d go that route.
Chocolate cookies stuffed with a simply flavored PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese filling. Easy peasy.
My favorite part is the surprise inside. They look like regular chocolate cookies on the outside, but when you take a bite you’re hit with this vibrant purple cheesecake filling. So much fun and so tasty, too!
Raspberry Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- extra sugar for rolling
For the filling:
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons seedless raspberry jam
Instructions
- To make the cookies, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until well combined.
- Chill the dough for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.
- For the filling, beat together all ingredients until well combined.
- To assemble cookies, take a golf ball sized chunk of dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten the dough into a disc between your hands. Place a teaspoonful of the filling into the center of the chocolate disc. Close the disc around the filing and roll into a ball. Roll the ball of dough in sugar.
- Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies 1 inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies seem set. Chill on the counter for 15 minutes and then chill in the fridge for another 30 minutes.
- Your hands will get messy and covered in chocolate while rolling the balls, but the end result is worth it!
Nutrition Information:
When I was asked to come up with four original recipes using PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese I screamed, jumped, and danced around. I was excited. I love cream cheese and PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese just happens to be the kind that I always purchase.
Then I stopped and thought about the task ahead of me.
Four. Original. Recipes. Suddenly, that sounded kinda hard. What if I couldn’t come up with four recipes? I usually start out with someone else’s recipe and, sure I tweak it, but that’s not ORIGINAL, is it?
So I made a list of possibilities. That list just kept on growing. Turns out that it’s pretty easy to come up with recipes using cream cheese. The hard part? Narrowing my list down.
This appetizer I’m sharing with you was actually a possible side dish that I was going to use, but decided to go in a different route for the side dish. So I did what any normal person would do and I took that side dish and deep fried it.
What? That’s not weird at all.
You see, the side dish was a Bacon and Cream Cheese Risotto. Yeah…it was pretty much delicious. Lucky for you, you’ll get that recipe as well. You can choose to go ahead and eat it as a side dish or you can continue on to make the most delicious Arancini evah.
Oh, and Arancini, in case you were wondering, is deep fried balls of Risotto. It’s outrageously delicious, especially when bacon and PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese are involved.
If you haven’t entered the Real Women of Philadelphia contest yet, what are you waiting for? As I said last time, the prizes are PHENOMENAL. We’re talking the chance to meet Paula Deen, contribute to cookbooks, and win $25,000. Head on over for the full details. Let me know if you enter…I’d love to watch your video!
Even if you don’t enter, there are some fabulous recipes to try out! I’ve been stalking the recipe submissions myself.
Bacon and Cream Cheese Arancini
- 6 slices bacon
- 2 cups Arborio rice
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 ounces PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 cup flour
- 1 egg
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs
- oil, for frying
In a large stockpot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer.
In a deep frying pan, fry the bacon slices until crisp. Set bacon aside and chop into bite size pieces. Discard all but three tablespoons of drippings.
Saute garlic in the bacon drippings for one minute or until fragrant. Add the rice and stir until it is coated in the grease and starting to toast. Stir in 2 cups of the hot chicken stock, stirring constantly, until the rice has absorbed the liquid and turns creamy. Repeat this twice more, stirring nonstop, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid and is soft and creamy. This process should take between 15 and 20 minutes.
Remove the risotto from the heat, stir in the PHILADELPHIA brand Cream Cheese and chopped bacon. Add salt and pepper to taste.
(You can serve this now as a side dish, thinning it out a bit if he needed with more chicken stock as the cream cheese thickens things up quite a bit.)
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or until fully chilled and firm.
When ready to fry your Arancini, pour oil to a dept of 2 inches in a deep frying pan. Heat oil to 350 degrees.
Scoop out rice into equal sizes to roll into balls. If you are serving these as an appetizer, I would make them smaller than the ones pictures, but as a side dish, the larger golf-ball sized balls are perfect.
Pour your flour, egg, and panko into three separate shallow dishes. Roll your rice balls in first the flour, then the egg, then the panko.
Place the coated balls in the oil (careful not to crowd the pan) and fry until golden brown on all sides, turning as needed. These keep wonderfully in a warm oven for up to 1 hour.
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Patty Regan says
In the ingredients it is listed 1/4 tsp. baking powder but the directions says baking soda. Which is it? baking powder or baking soda?
Thanks!
Karly says
@Patty Regan,
Good catch! That should be baking soda! 🙂
Patty R. says
@Karly,
I used baking soda from doing a quick search. Guessing it probably was baking soda.
I combined this with another recipe of using hot coffee to melt some choc. chips. Not sure if it made much of a difference to the recipe or not but my kids and I love the cookies.
Just found this site. Looks like some really good recipes up here!
Thanks!
Catherine says
How many cookies does it make? (Will it be enough for my office team héhé!)
Jennifer says
I made these with strawberry jam and they were AMAZING. thanks for this fantastic recipe!
Sasha @ The Procrastobaker says
I made these and blogged about them too! They were absolutely delicious, better than i expected! But i have to say they were a royal pain in the bum to make 🙂 you wernt lying when you said your hands would be covered in chocolate!!
Thank you for the lovely recipe though, the cookie part especially far exceeded my expectations 🙂
http://theprocrastobaker.blogspot.com/2011/07/raspberry-cheesecake-stuffed-chocolate.html
Amanda says
What adorable cookies! I love the filling—the color is beautiful! I’m not a huge fan of raspberry, but I would try this with another jam.
Dmarie says
oh, WOW! cannot wait to make these!!
Sasha says
I dont think ive ever seen a prettier cookie! I bet they taste wonderful too, definitely on the to bake list 🙂
Jun says
Love the surprise!!!
Toni says
I made these and they were delicious! How did you get the filling to be so beautiful!? Mine was a much less solid, pink-ish filling. Yours is so perfect! Help?