Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie Cups

I love cookies! It doesn't matter the recipe, the ingredients, size, or shape. For me, nothing is better after a long day then a delicious, warm cookie. Except maybe two!

In my house, nothing reigns more supreme than the all classic sugar cookie. No matter what the Holiday, you'll find delicious, frosted sugar cookies in our home, cut out in the most exciting and expressive shapes you can imagine. Simply put, we love sugar cookies, so you can imagine how excited I was to try today's recipe. Building off of our family sugar cookie recipe, we've combined two great desserts, cookies and cheesecake, to give you the ultimate in deliciousness! Don't worry though, you can substitute any sugar cookie recipe (or even the store bought dough) and still have the same results. Let's get baking, it's Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie Cups time!

Ingredients:
3 sticks Butter, softened (about 1 1/2 cups)
5 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 cups Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Baking Powder

Cheesecake Filling:
1 cup  Freeze Dried Strawberries
1 cup Powdered Cream Cheese + 3 Tbsp Water
1 tsp Vanilla
12 oz White Chocolate Chips, melted

Directions:
First, mix your cookie dough by creaming your butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together.

Add flour, salt, and baking powder and mix together until a soft dough forms.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. This will make the dough easier to work with.

Once chilled, remove and roll out on a floured surface.

Using a cookie cutter or mason jar lip, cut out cookies.

Place cookies in greased muffin tins, making sure to form the cookie to each tin.

Place in a preheated oven of 350 degrees and bake for 14 minutes, or until sides are golden brown.

Remove from tins and let cool on a wire rack.

While cookies are cooling, make your cheesecake filling by crushing strawberries and placing in a mixing bowl with reconstituted cream cheese, vanilla, and melted white chocolate chips. Mix with an electric hand mixer until frosting forms.

Transfer frosting to a large freezer bag and, with a hole cut out in the bottom, pipe frosting into cooled cups. Make sure to wait for cups to cool completely before doing this. Once cups are filled, serve.

While the look of these cookies are far from traditional, the taste and texture will simply light up your world. These are not what you'd expect from a typical sugar cookie. The strawberry cheesecake filling is packed with flavor and texture. The cookie recipe is great on its own, but combined with the filling, you've got a treat you'll enjoy again and again.

It's time to fall in love with cookies again, and thanks to this recipe, that task won't be too hard!