Low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies

Everyone loves a strawberry cheesecake, but imagine a cheesecake inside a cookie? You can have the best of both worlds with these low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies! These cookies combine the sweet flavor of strawberries with the tanginess of a cheesecake all wrapped up neatly in a delicious vanilla cookie!

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Spring is in full swing and are you really taking advantage if you’re not getting creative with the fruits of the season? If you love strawberries, you are going to adore these low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies! They are so soft and delicate in the centre but have the classic crispy cookie edges. They are packed with strawberry flavor and at just 60 calories a cookie, you really can’t go wrong with this recipe!

A quick peek at my dessert archives will show how much of a dessert mash up fan I am. I love a 2-in-1 recipe and these strawberry cheesecake cookies are the newest addition to my collection. From tiramisu cookies to blueberry muffin cookies, there’s a fun cookie mash-up for everyone!

This recipe is simple but can be messy – the way all delicious recipes should be 😉 It comes together so quickly and once cooled, you have the most delicious cheesecake cookies ready to be eaten. This is also a small batch recipe and only makes 6 cookies which is great for snack prep throughout the week. So if you’re looking for a delicious sweet, but light dessert recipe for this spring and summer season, these low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies are perfect for you!

Ingredients

Exact ingredient quantities can be found at the bottom of this page on the recipe card.

To make these low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies you will need:

Plain/all-purpose flour – You can also opt for gluten-free flour here.

Stevia or 0 calorie sweetener – I always recomend using a granulated sweetener that is very similar to sugar. Stevia is always my go-to but you can use any 0 calorie sweetener here. Be mindful of the conversion as all sweeteners are not made equal! The specific stevia I use is a 1:2 ratio of stevia to sugar meaning half the weight of sugar is required. If you’re using stevia drops or a different brand or sweetener, you will need to consider that and convert according to the specific one you’re using.

Baking soda – To help the cookies spread.

Unsweetened applesauce – Applesauce works great to replace high calorie ingredients like butter and eggs. You only need a small amount for this recipe. If you don’t have applesauce, you can use low-fat butter instead but the calories may differ.

Olive oil – Any oil will work here.

Vanilla – No cookie recipe is complete without vanilla!

Low-fat cream cheese – To make the cheesecake filling. I used philadelphia lightest which is 3% fat cream cheese but this may not be available in a lot of countries so low-fat cream cheese is the best alternative. There will be a very small difference in calories if you do use low-fat cream cheese so bear that in mind.

Lemon juice – To add a little tanginess and balance out the sweetness of the strawberries.

Strawberries – A whole lot of diced fresh strawberries! This is where the recipe can get messy, the best way to avoid super wet batter is blotting the diced strawberries with a paper towel to remove any excess water. The more water you can remove before incorporating the strawberries into the batter, the better.

How to make low calorie strawberry cheesecake cookies

For the cheesecake filling:

1. Line a small tray with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, stevia, lemon juice and vanilla until smooth.
3. Create 6 equal circular blobs of the cheesecake filling onto the parchment paper and set in the freezer for at least 1 hour to set.

For the cookies:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Make the cookie dough by whisking together the oil, stevia, applesauce and vanilla until well combined. Add in the flour and baking soda and fold to combine.
3. Gently fold in ¾ of the diced strawberries. Set the other ¼ aside for topping later.
4. To assemble the cookies, weigh out 6 equal portions of cookie dough and split each cookie into two. Place half of each cookie dough onto the parchment paper and flatten slightly using a rubber spatula.
5. Place a cheesecake disc onto each of the cookies and then top with the remaining cookie dough. Use the back of a spoon to join the dough together and completely cover the cheesecake disc.
6. Top each cookie with more diced strawberries and bake for 12-14 minutes, allow the cookies to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
7. Enjoy the cooled cookies!

Top tips

1. Dry your strawberries – Strawberries contain a lot of water and its impossible to remove it all but get out as much as you can before adding them to the cookie dough. They will make the dough wet but removing as much water from them means the dough is still manageable.
2. Use a kitchen scale – Using a kitchen scale means your cookies will all be even and you dont have to do too much work to get them even. Since the batter is split in half, it can be very difficult to guess how much batter each cookie gets and the scale takes all the guess work out of making these cookies! I would recommend weighing out the bowl you’re making the cookie dough in and noting the weight down, then make your cookie dough and weigh the bowl again with the dough inside. Subtract the initial weight of the bowl from the weight with the cookie dough and thats how much cookie dough you have. Then just divide that number by 6 to make 6 cookies. You can then divide the weight of each cookie by two so you can scoop half, add the cheesecake disc and then scoop the other half on top to cover the dough!
3. Let the cookies cool completely – I know how tempting it can be to dig into these cookies right away, but they taste 10x better when they’ve cooled completely! The cheesecake flavor really comes through once they’re cooled so give them time!

Storage

Store these cookies in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

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