How to Make 5-Ingredient Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cookies

It seems like everyone is on TikTok to pass the time these days. In fact, the video app is breaking records with more than 2 billion downloads so far. And you know what? I'm here for it. Thanks to viral recipes like 3-ingredient crème brûlée and hacks to prevent avocados from browning, I'm learning a lot in self-isolation. For this week's baking therapy adventure, I give you 5-ingredient cookies and cream cheesecake cookies. As soon as I watched the TikTok video (with 1.9 million likes!), my mouth was watering and I wanted to make these asap.

How to Make 5-Ingredient Cookies and Cream Cheesecake Cookies

Soft, chewy, and delicious, I can't believe how easy these were. Karina Arkk, the TikTok user behind the video, used Double Stuf Oreos, but you can use whatever brand of chocolate sandwich cookies you like. I used Joe-Joe's from Trader Joe's in this recipe. I also halved this recipe, which is a good thing, because I definitely don't need to be eating a full batch of these addicting treats on my own.

Ingredients

• One 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 1½ cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 20 chocolate sandwich cookies, coarsely chopped

Method

1. In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and sugar using a hand mixer or stand mixer until well-blended. This should take a couple of minutes. You could use a whisk to do this by hand, just expect an intense arm workout.
2. Slowly add flour and mix until fully incorporated.
3. Gently fold-in cookies. (I got a little too happy chopping my cookies, so they might be a bit more speckled with crumbs than yours.)
4. Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Chilling the dough is key here! The fat in the dough needs to solidify a bit to hold their shape while baking.
5. When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, roll dough into balls using a cookie scoop (or 2 Tbsp. per cookie). Gently press the dough down with the back of a spoon to make a cookie shape. Tip: spray the spoon with nonstick spray first to prevent sticking.
6. Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown and the center is puffed up. Let them cool on the pan for 5 minutes before cooling completely on a wire rack.

Unlike some of the recipes I've tried in the past couple of months, the flavor of these cookies and cream cheesecake cookies are great as is without making any tweaks to the recipe. And as I said before, make sure you thoroughly chill your cookie dough. In my testing, the dough on my second pan was a little warmer than the first, and they definitely spread more, making the edges thinner and crispy. They were still edible, but uneven. I plan on letting these guys go for at least an hour in the fridge next time. Yes, this is for sure a recipe worth repeating.