Merry Christmas! Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies
Christmas is a time for caring and sharing. The best way to brighten someone’s season is to share some sugar. Add touches of sweetness to the last few crazy days before the Christmas holidays. I started making cookies last year as Christmas cheer and gifting them to close friends and colleagues. This is a tradition I’d like to keep for as long as it gives me joy to bake and share.
I saw this gorgeous creation on one of my favourite blogs and I knew straightaway that it would be my 2011 Christmas cookie. To make it an even sweeter deal, it’s a shortcut recipe using box cake mix! Bliss. You can’t imagine how much time that saved me.
There’s something about red velvet cake or cookies that is deliciously beautiful. The white chocolate drizzle set against the rich red cookie is a perfect Christmas picture.
The cheesecake part of the cookie is really the filling in the cookie. It’s like a pleasant surprise to an already yummy cake-like cookie. I love how easy it was to make these, and how much more satisfying it was to bring a smile to those who received them.
Add a few pieces of string, a plastic bag, a cardboard with pretty words and voila! A package of Christmas cheer.
I’m off to Tasmania with the hubs and I’m looking forward to a week of sunshine, hiking, beaches and catching up with old friends over good food and drinks.
Have a safe and happy Christmas everyone! Thank you for your support and encouragement for droolfactor this year. See y’all in 2012 for more yummy goodness!
RED VELVET CHEESECAKE COOKIES
Adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod
Makes 10 giant cookies
For the cookies:
1 box red velvet cake mix (I used White Wings Devilish Red Velvet)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cheesecake filling:
110g cream cheese, at room temperature
65gm icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted
In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap.Refrigerate for at least two hours.
For the cheesecake filling, using a mixer, combine cream cheese, icing sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out 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.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into ten equal portions. On a piece of cling film, roll a portion of the dough into a ball, flatten it (I found it easier manipulating the dough using the cling film as it sticks to the hand and fingers and not on the cling film).
Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet and flatten it slightly till it becomes a thick even disc. Note: Original recipe did not require flattening of the dough into a disc which resulted in a thick cookie. I believe the spreading of the cookie will vary depending on the cake mix. Test bake one cookie first just to be on the safe side.
Only bake 3 or 4 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and 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.
droolfactor 
Looks very pretty and nice!!
wow looks great!
Great gift idea — you packaged it so nicely and the cookie itself is soo pretty!
Happy Holidays!
I tried this with Duff’s red velvet cake mix… the oil was just oozing out… even after refrigerating… had to add a lot more flour to it. I’ve tried it with Canada’s PC brand red velvet cake mix and it worked perfectly.
En españa no tenemos la caja de mezcla de terciopelo rojo… Cómo la sustituyo???
Hi Maria. Sorry I’m not sure what you meant. (I had to translate from Spanish!) I did use a box of red velvet cake mix. So you don’t have to substitute if you have the same thing.
Droolfactor what Maria is saying is that she doesn’t have red velvet cake mix so how does she substitute for that?
My question to help her out: Could she make her own red velvet cake mix from scratch versus using a cake box mix since that is not available to her ?
Thanks flowerblozzom. If you don’t have red velvet cake, you can try chocolate cake mix and add red food coloring? Essentially that is what red velvet cake is?
Hello, I love this recipe, but I noticed that the Red Velvet cake mix you used is an Australian brand that I’ve never seen here in America. I’m not sure if you’d be able to answer this, but do you know of any (I guess) American brands that would be a good substitute. I read above that certain mixes led to excess oil and I’m trying to avoid things like that. Any suggestions?
Hey David, try Duncan Hines.
[…] (Adapted from DroolFactor) […]
Hey there! This recipe seems awesome and I really want to try it out. It seems weird to me that you use flour, eggs and oil but you also add a cake mix. Is this necessary? I am only asking because it’s pretty tough to find any kind of cake mix in Greece. Thank you for your time in advance.
Hi Kostas, we use the cake mix (which usually requires oil and eggs anyway) and add flour to it, so that it can have more of a cookie consistency rather than just a cake. IIf you can’t get a cake mix, then perhaps you can try using a regular recipe for a red velvet cake (google it, there’s heaps of recipes out there and one of them should suit you) and add more flour to it. I haven’t tried that myself because I have easy access to cake mix. Let me know how you go if you do try that.
What’s icing sugar.i live on the U.S. where can I find it.
Hey Marla, icing sugar is what you’d call confectioners sugar or powdered sugar. Same thing, different names :)
[…] sweets, but I’m a sucker for red velvet baked goods and cheesecake! When I came across this recipe, I was sold and had to make it. The recipe doesn’t look too difficult, so why not? I used to […]
Just found this and I’m thinking of making these for my boyfriend’s birthday next month. What’s canola oil, is it necessary and what could be a good substitute if I can’t find any? I’d rather not buy a whole thing of it if I’m only ever going to use it for this recipe you see…
Hi Catrin you can substitute canola oil with another vegetable oil. As long as it is light in flavour, definitely not olive oil.
At what temp do I bake the cookies?
180 deg celcius. It’s in the recipe.