Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

Oh my gosh, welcome to the first day of the best month of the year. This is so exciting, ok, calm down. It's going to be great.

After spotting these in the Cook's Country holiday cookie contest, I was stoked to try them. I mean, you think you've seen and heard of pretty much every kind of cookie, and then one day you see one you haven't, and you're dying to find out what it's like! These are pretty much as they say. With 2 blocks of cream cheese and 2 1/2 sticks of butter, they are indeed like cheesecake. Yum, rich, yum.

Notes:

• I broke down and took a cheater step with the graham crumbs. My food processor is on the fritz and I didn't feel like hand crushing so I just bought a box of crumbs - they are in the baking aisle by the prepared graham pie crusts. Tasted like the real thing...probably because it is.


• Draining the cherry pie filling is the messiest part of making these. It's not like they're canned in juice. The filling is thick, and incidentally DELICIOUS. But you can't just dump it in a colander because it doesn't really drain. You kind of have to remove the cherries by hand and try to gently rub/scrape the filling off.


• The recipe says you can store them for a couple of days in an airtight container. The way it worked out for me, I made part of the cookies the night before serving them, and the rest the day of. The ones I made ahead I stored between layers of wax paper in a tupperware container. When compared side-by-side, the day-olds were much softer and the filling darker; the fresh cookies were more crisp on the outside/soft in the middle, with a brighter colored filling. So I'd suggest giving these away the day you make them.

Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened

20 T (that's 2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 20-oz. cans cherry pie filling, drained

1. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese, butter and sugar until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated. Reduce speed to low, add flour mixture, and mix until just combined. Refrigerate dough until firm, at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchemtn or silpat. Place graham cracker crumbs in shallow dish.

3. Roll dough into 1 1/2-inch balls, then roll in crumbs. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Using tablespoon measure (or melon baller), make indentation in center of each ball. Place 3 cherries in each dimple. Bake until golden around edges, 12 to 16 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely. (Cookies can be stored in airtight container for up to 2 day but are really best fresh.) Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

Recipe from Cook's Country, December 2009