Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 1 cup of softened butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 ¾ cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 box of cheesecake mix
• 1 bag of milk chocolate chips (optional)
• 13.5 x 10.5 muffin tin

Baking Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. 
2. While your oven preheats you will make your cheesecake mix, first. You can make your own, but I will be using a boxed mix this time. Follow the instructions on the box. Once your mix is in the refrigerator, you can start on your cookie batter.
3. Stir the flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a medium-sized mixing bowl 
4. In a separate and larger bowl, mix together all of the sugar and butter until it is smooth (with no chunks), then add the egg and vanilla.
5.  Once that is combined, slowly add the dry ingredients. When the dough is ready, it should be smooth and able to be molded easily. 
6. To start molding the dough into the tin, you will want to start with a teaspoon-sized dough ball. If you need to get a bit more, that is okay. You want the sides of your cookie to be about ¼ to ½ of an inch thick and also do not want to see the bottom of the tin through the bottom of the dough. You can make the edges as short as you would like, but do not go above the rim. 
7. Bake the dough for 5-7 minutes – keep an eye on it, though, to ensure it does not burn. 
8. Once your dough is out of the oven and has cooled completely, take your cheesecake batter and fill it to the top.
9. Let rest for a couple of minutes.
10. This is the step where I would melt my chocolate and then drizzle it on top (completely optional and other toppings can be used). 
11. To get your cookies out of the muffin tin, grab a butter knife and carefully separate the edges of the cookie from the tin. Be gentle with this step because they might crumble.

Tips & Tricks

• To fill my cookies with the batter, I used a piping bag. If you do not have one, it is simple to make your own. 
  • Grab a Ziploc bag and fill it with as much batter you would like 
  • Close the bag and cut one of the bottom corners off (the size of the “nozzle” is completely up to you) 
• When looking at oven temperature and cook time, make sure it is accurate to your oven. Some ovens cook hotter or cooler than others, which will ultimately affect the time it needs to bake. 
• With the type of batter this recipe uses, the dough is baked for a shorter amount of time than it normally would. The dough holds heat and will continue to bake for a few minutes after they come out of the oven. 
• When you mix your dry ingredients together, I recommend using a spoon (the material does not matter). Mixing the “wet” ingredients I used a rubber spatula (you can use an electric mixer if you have one- it will speed up the process).