Bourn to Create
A gluten-free strawberry cheesecake cookie pulled open to show the cream cheese center, with fresh strawberries on a wooden board

Gluten-Free Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

Gluten-Free Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

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These are not my recipe and I want to say that right up front, they're Addison's over at Organically Addison, and they went viral for good reason. All I did was make them the way I eat.

I've been gluten-free for over ten years, so this is my whole life: find a recipe that looks incredible, then figure out how to get there without wheat. Addison actually already gives a gluten-free option in hers, which made this an easy one. I used King Arthur's Gluten Free Measure for Measure. It's a true 1:1, so you swap it straight across and don't think about it again.

The one thing I do differently: I freeze my butter and grate it on a box grater instead of cubing it cold. You get cold butter spread evenly through the sugar without ever softening it, and I can do the whole thing with a hand mixer instead of dragging out the stand mixer. If your cookies have ever spread into sad flat puddles, this is the fix.

The Recipe

Method

  1. Make the filling first. Beat the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar together until it’s smooth and fluffy.

  2. Drop teaspoon-sized dollops of it onto a parchment-lined sheet and freeze them for at least 30 minutes. Don’t skip this or rush it: frozen solid is what keeps the middles gooey instead of leaking out the sides while they bake.

  3. Grate your frozen butter straight into a bowl with both sugars and beat it 2–3 minutes.

  4. Add the eggs and mix until combined.

  5. Add the gluten-free flour, baking soda, vanilla, and salt, and mix until it comes together into a dough.

  6. Fold in the diced strawberries, then chill the dough for 30 minutes.

  7. Flatten a ball of dough in your palm, press a frozen cream cheese ball into the center, and seal the dough all the way around it. Really seal it: any gap and the filling finds it.

  8. Space them about 3 inches apart and bake at 350°F for 11–12 minutes, until they’re just set. They’ll look slightly underdone and that’s right.

  9. Let them cool on the pan for 10 minutes before you move them. They’re very soft coming out and they will fall apart on you.

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