These gingerbread cheesecake cookies are soft and chewy with a creamy cheesecake filling stuffed in the middle of each cookie. They're perfectly spiced and a favourite during the holidays!
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Notes from the baker
Chewy gingerbread cookies are my absolute favourite kind of holiday cookies. The deeply spiced flavour is so warm and cozy and festive. The soft texture beats hard gingerbread cookies any day, in my opinion.
I decided to take my go-to soft gingerbread cookie recipe and stuff it with cheesecake to give it a sweet surprise inside. The result is as delicious and decadent as it sounds. I almost want to savagely eat just the centres of these cookies. These gingerbread cheesecake cookies are the cookies to make this holiday if you love classics with a twist.
I know many of you love cheesecake (they're some of the top recipes on my site) so I hope you love these cheesecake cookies just as much.
Why you'll love this recipe
- Soft and chewy gingerbread cookies. The texture of these cookies is so satisfying. They're slightly crisp on the outside when freshly baked from the sugar coating and soft on the inside.
- Creamy cheesecake filling. A rich and decadent addition that goes so well with the gingerbread flavour.
- Easy to make and make ahead of time. This recipe is great for making ahead of time and bake when you want freshly baked cookies.
Tools
- Electric hand mixer - A hand mixer is always a helpful tool when working with cream cheese and softened butter. It makes mixing so much easier and faster than if you were to do it by hand.
- 4-tablespoon cookie scooper - This is my go-to size of cookie scoop. I would not use anything smaller than a 3-tablespoon scoop for these cookies because there simply wouldn't be enough dough to wrap around the cheesecake filling.
- 1-tablespoon cookie scooper - You'll need a smaller scoop or spoon to portion out the cheesecake filling. I wouldn't use anything bigger than 1 tablespoon because again, it'll be hard to wrap the cookie dough around it.
- Baking sheet - You can use any baking sheet or baking tray to bake these cookies.
Ingredient notes
As always, the full recipe card with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post! Keep reading for more details on each ingredient or skip ahead to the recipe.
- Cream cheese - Use cream cheese that comes in brick form, not spreadable cream cheese that comes in tubs. It should be softened to room temperature to ensure your cheesecake mixture is very creamy and lump-free.
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground ginger
- Ground cloves
- Ground nutmeg
- Salt
- Unsalted butter - This should also be softened to room temperature.
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Cooking molasses - Molasses is a thick and sweet syrup that is made as a by-product in sugar production. It has a deep flavour that gingerbread is known for. I used cooking molasses (a blend of fancy molasses and blackstrap molasses) here because it suits gingerbread well. It's also responsible for the chewy texture of these cookies.
- Egg - Again, this should be at room temperature to prevent your mixture from curdling.
Tips for making the best gingerbread cheesecake cookies
- Chill the cookie dough. The cookie dough will be very soft and sticky when it's first mixed. You'll need to chill the dough until it's firm to prevent it from sticking to your hands when you add the cheesecake filling. If you find that it's too sticky while you're working with it, pop it back in the fridge until it firms up again. Trust me, it will be so much easier to work with when it's cold.
- Make the cheesecake filling and cookie dough the day before. Since both the cheesecake filling and the cookie dough needs to be chilled, this recipe is a great candidate to make over two days with an overnight chill. This way, you don't have to wait around and don't have to stress if the dough isn't firm enough.
- Don't use too much cheesecake filling. It's easy to overestimate how much cheesecake filling you can stuff into the cookies. I found that a 4:1 dough to cheesecake ratio seems to work well to ensure there's enough dough to wrap around the cheesecake filling.
- Use a spoon when working with the cheesecake filling. Due to the powdered sugar, the cheesecake filling doesn't freeze completely solid. Use a spoon or offset spatula when lifting it off the parchment paper and placing it on the cookie dough to keep it from sticking to your fingers.
- Don't worry if the cookie dough doesn't completely seal around the cheesecake filling. The cookie dough might crack as you're wrapping it around the cheesecake filling (especially if it's overstuffed!) but I found that I actually liked the look of the cookies that weren't completely sealed and had some of the cheesecake showing through.
Storage
These gingerbread cheesecake cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. These cookies do need to be stored in the fridge because of the cream cheese in the filling but they'll be fine at room temperature for a couple of hours.
If you eat them cold, straight from the fridge, they'll be slightly harder in texture but still good. Some people may actually prefer them this way. To return them to their original texture, let them sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before eating.
Frequently asked questions
Yes! You can make the cheesecake filling and cookie dough 1-2 days in advance and put them together right before baking. You could also stuff the cookie dough with cheesecake filling and store the cookie dough balls int he fridge or freezer until you're ready to bake them.
Yes. You can freeze the cookie dough in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 1 month. Bake the frozen dough at 325°F for a few minutes longer than directed.
Baking by weight is much more accurate than volume. When using US standard cups, ingredients like flour and sugar can easily be overpacked into the cup causing you to add too much of certain ingredients. Recipes with weight measurements are also easier to scale to smaller or bigger batches without dealing with weird fractions. To measure by weight, you simply need a kitchen scale which you can usually pick up for less than $20.
Small measurements are given in tablespoons and teaspoons because most kitchen scales are not accurate under about 10g. Tiny amounts like a ¼ teaspoon may not register accurately unless you have a sensitive coffee or pharmaceutical scale. Mixing these measurements is a common practice among other recipe sites and commercial kitchens.
More cookie recipes to try
- Gingerbread Latte Cookies
- Chewy Ginger Cookies
- Easy Gingerbread Cookies
- Gingerbread Sandwich Cookies with Ginger Cream Filling
Recipe
Gingerbread Cheesecake Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
Cheesecake Filling
- 125 g cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 75 g powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Gingerbread Cookies
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 150 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 100 g brown sugar
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 100 g cooking molasses
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For rolling
- 50 g granulated sugar
Instructions
Cheesecake Filling
- Prep: Line a plate with a small sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Mix cheesecake mixture: In a small mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat the softened cream cheese until creamy. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat on low speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Scoop out dollops: Use a small 1-tablespoon cookie scooper or a spoon to scoop and drop small dollops of cheesecake onto your lined plate.
- Freeze: Freeze the cheesecake dollops for at least 1 hour until firm (they won't become fully solid but they should be firm enough to hold their shape) while you prepare the cookie dough.
Gingerbread Cookies
- Prep: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Line a small cutting board with parchment paper. This second board will be used to chill the cookie dough so it can be any flat surface like a plate or another baking sheet. Set aside.
- Flour mixture: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
- Butter mixture: In a large mixing bowl, add the softened butter. Use a hand mixer to beat the butter until it becomes very creamy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat until creamy and fluffy.
- Add wet ingredients: Add the molasses and beat again until thoroughly combined. Finally, add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again on low speed until combined.
- Combine flour and butter mixtures: Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until mostly combined. Switch to a spatula to finish mixing to avoid overmixing.
- Scoop cookie dough: Use a 4-tablespoon cookie scooper to scoop the cookie dough. Release the cookie dough balls on your lined board. They can be placed close together.
- Chill dough: Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight until solid.
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the granulated sugar for rolling to a shallow dish.
- Stuff the cookie dough with cheesecake: You can do this in two ways. 1) Press the cookie dough with your fingers until it becomes a flat sheet. Place the frozen cheesecake dollop in the middle and wrap it up by bringing the cookie dough back up around the cheesecake. 2) Split the cookie dough in half. Flatten each half separately into two flat rounds. Place the cheesecake dollop on top of one round. Place the other round on top and pinch the dough together to seal.
- Roll in sugar: Roll the cookie dough ball in between your hands and then roll it in granulated sugar until coated. Place the dough ball on your lined baking sheet, leaving about 2" in between each ball to account for spreading.
- Bake: Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes or until the edges are set and the surface is puffy and slightly cracked.
- Cool: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Emily says
What is the original chewy gingerbread recipe?
Xiao says
Absolute hit!!
I made these as a gift to a group of people and got so many compliments. Definitely the most complex cookie I have baked yet, but the recipe was super easy to follow.
Arielle says
My family and I LOVED these! Will probably become a staple and perfect for Christmas!
We found the cheesecake filling to be a little subtle amongst the gingerbread flavour (quite rich, very yummy) so we served with some vanilla ice cream.
Brittany says
Amazing. I had to send this recipe to ten people after bringing them to a party!
Alexis says
so yum!! I added 1/3 cup of flour and kept the dough and filling in the freezer while I assembled 1 by 1, which definitely helped keep them from getting too sticky/melty.
Lisandra Gomez says
Turned out sooo good!! I would recommend to let the dough chill in the fridge prior to scooping it as my dough was very sticky when following the measurements in the recipe. i let it chill first which made it a lot easier to scoop and then let it chill some more after. They also spread a lot so many want to space them out more then in the recipe.
Anonymous says
Delicious! I added 25g of flour which made the dough much more manageable. I also think these would do better as smaller cookies. It was difficult to fully cook the inside before the bottom started to burn
Claudia says
these taste good but you really need to refrigerate them again before you bake or else they spread out like crazy i baked as instructed and the cheesecake filling stayed in the middle while the cookie dough spread out and formed together like a big brownie or something… highly recommend either more flour in the dough or longer fridge time after rolling them out to help.
Anonymous says
exactly what happened to me ),: i have giant gingerbread puddles. might try again by adding more flour and chilling again before baking. i even chilled them overnight and they still spread so so badly...
Fran says
Very tasty, yet so bloody messy. There definitely is a way to make gooey cookies without creating a mess 100%. The taste is perfect. But the recipe needs more flour so it doesn’t completely melt in hands when trying to combine the cream cheese batter and cookie batter. All issues aside. They were delicious, but I definitely suggest adding at least a 1/3 cup more flour and insure that your cookie balls are SMALL!
Anonymous says
Is there a way to make them smaller and get more out of the batch or can I double the recipe ?
Emily says
Such nice cookies they came out perfect and were crispy around the edges and soft inside.
Bianca B. says
Hiii! What can I do if I don’t have space in my freezer to freeze the cream and dough?
Marietta says
SOOO good!!
Louie Saul says
Hi!!
I would love to make these for the office!! Do they need to be refrigerated / chilled in any way? Is it not recommended to leave out at room temp?
Thanks!!
Gail Ng says
They do need to be refrigerated because of the cream cheese inside but leaving them at room temp for a few hours is fine!
Jennifer says
Hi What brand of molasses did you use?