Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies — These soft batch cookies are made with a combination of butter and cream cheese, which makes them extra rich and delicious! I like to make mine using a combination of chocolate chips and chunks, and you can even use M&M’s in these!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe … with Cream Cheese!
I’ve been wanting to bake cream cheese into cookies for ages. I finally did. And I’m in love with the results.
In my cookbook, I have a recipe for Carrot Cake Cookies with cream cheese baked in, but I’ve never tried it with chocolate chip cookies or as a way to substitute for butter until now.
I adapted my favorite Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies recipe and replaced some of the butter with cream cheese and am in love with the results.
My favorite recipe calls for 3/4 cup of butter, and for these soft batch chocolate chip cookies I used a combination of 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup cream cheese. You wouldn’t think that just a simple quarter-cup swap of butter for cream cheese would effect results that much, but it did.
These chocolate chip cream cheese cookies are so soft, moist, and with a richness to the dough like no other cookies I’ve tried.
Cornstarch is my secret weapon for creating super soft cookies. The reason pudding cookies turn out so soft is because ‘modified food starch,’ or cornstarch, is one of the first ingredients in pudding mix. Same principle here, minus using actual pudding mix.
After trying these soft batch chocolate chip cream cheese cookies and not being able to keep my hands off of them, it’s made me wonder what’ll happen if I replace some of the butter with cream cheese in some of my other favorite cookie recipes. I can’t wait to start taste-testing and make up for lost time!
What Does Cream Cheese Do for Cookies?
It makes them super soft and moist! In this particular recipe, the dough seems more buttery — which is ironic since there’s actually less butter used, not more.
I can’t taste the cream cheese, but it adds depth, density, and richness that my regular chocolate chip cookies don’t have.
Use cream cheese in a block or the spreadable kind. Smoosh it into a one-quarter cup measure and cream it with the butter and sugars. I used a combination of 2 1/4 cups of chocolate chips and chunks to ensure plenty of chocolate in every bite. And then some.
The cream cheese cookies are super soft without being cakey, and remind me of soft batch cookies. The edges are slightly chewy, and the thick interiors are soft, tender, and moist.
Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
If you’ve never made chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese before, you’re in for a treat! You’ll need just a handful of pantry staples:
- Unsalted butter
- Cream cheese
- Light brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
How to Make Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
The steps for this chocolate chip cookie recipe with cream cheese couldn’t be simpler!
- Cream together the cream cheese, butter, sugars, and vanilla extract. Whip the mixture on medium-high speed until it’s light and fluffy. Don’t just mix it all together, it must be light and fluffy before moving onto the next step!
- Add in the dry ingredients and scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets incorporated.
- Scoop the cookie dough into large balls and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before baking.
- Bake the cookies for no more than 10 minutes, then let cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack.
Tip: DO NOT overbake the cookies. They’ll continue cooking on the inside as they come to room temperature, and you definitely don’t want them to become too firm. Remember: you’re making soft batch cookies here!
Can I Use a Cornstarch Substitute?
Honestly, I’m not sure if a cornstarch substitute would work in this recipe. To make these cream cheese chocolate chip cookies soft batch-style, the cornstarch is needed.
Technically, you can omit the cornstarch, but your cookies won’t turn out as soft.
Can the Cookies Be Made with Low-Fat Cream Cheese?
No, don’t use light, fat-free, or a whipped cream cheese because your dough will become runny. I tried the recipe with some light cream cheese I had on hand, and the cookies baked thinner and spread.
Can I Add Mix-Ins to the Cookie Dough?
I made these as classic chocolate chip cream cheese cookies, but I bet you could add extra mix-ins if desired. Chopped nuts, M&M’s, or your favorite chopped up candy bar would all be good additions.
Just be sure to add no more than 2 1/4 cups mix-ins total.
Do I Have to Chill the Cookie Dough?
Yes, if you want to make soft batch chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese you MUST chill the dough first.
Make sure to chill your dough for at least two hours before you bake to ensure your cookies bake thick and puffy. Warm, limp dough bakes into limpy and wimpy cookies.
I want my cookies to be thick, with puffy centers that are overflowing with chocolate.
Can I Chill the Dough and Then Roll it Into Balls?
I wouldn’t recommend it. The dough firms up a lot in the fridge and becomes crumbly, which makes it tough to roll after being chilled. You really need to form the cookie dough balls and then chill them for best results.
Can I Freeze Cookie Dough?
Yes, this chocolate chip cream cheese cookie dough freezes incredibly well. Just roll the dough into balls as if you were going to bake them, but store them in the freezer instead.
You don’t have to thaw the dough before baking it, just bake it straight from frozen (note that you may need to bake these cream cheese cookies 1 to 2 minutes longer if baking from frozen).
Tips for Making Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cream Cheese
Cookie scoop: I used a 2-inch cookie scoop to make my cookies because I like them really big. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, use a large spoon and your hands. Just try to make your cookies all the same size so they bake evenly!
Cookie cake: I’ve never tried this myself, but a few readers have asked if they could transform the cookie dough into a cookie cake. My gut says most likely! Use this chocolate chip cookie pie recipe as a reference for bake times.
Make ahead: As I mentioned already, the cookie dough freezes incredibly well. If you plan on making the cookies ahead of time to freeze for later, I recommend freezing the dough rather than the baked cookies.
But that’s just my personal preference as I prefer enjoying freshly baked cookies rather than thawed and reheated ones!
Pin This Recipe
Enjoy AverieCooks.com Without Ads! 🆕
Go Ad Free
Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened*
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 2 ¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks**
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, cream cheese (measure it by smooshing it into a 1/4-cup measure), sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use an electric hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add chocolate chips and chunks, and beat momentarily to incorporate, or fold in by hand.
- Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping mounds (I made 28). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly with your palm, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or spray with cooking spray and place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not bake longer than 10 minutes as cookies will firm up as they cool.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.***
- Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
©averiecooks.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
More Cookies Made with Cream Cheese:
ALL OF MY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPES!
Cream Cheese Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies — Cream cheese keeps them super soft! Say hello to your new fave chocolate cookie!!
Black and White Cream Cheese Cookies — These cookies combine two favorites in one! Soft, moist, buttery, creamy Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies are paired with fudgy, intensely chocolaty, and not overly sweet Dark Chocolate Dark Brown Sugar Cookies.
Cream Cheese White Chocolate Chip Cookies — These soft and chewy white chocolate chip cookies use two special ingredients to achieve their pillowy texture: instant pudding mix and cream cheese!
Cream Cheese Cookies — Big, soft, buttery cookies with sweet and tangy cream cheese in the middle!! Oh my….Best thumbprints ever!!!
Softbatch Glazed Lemon Cream Cheese Cookies — Big, bold lemon flavor packed into super soft cookies thanks to the cream cheese!! Tangy-sweet perfection! Lemon lovers are going to adore these easy cookies!!
So sorry, I see my question has already been answered! I missed it when I looked the 1st time.
These look yummy! Can the dough be frozen once I’ve shaped it into mounds? I’m thinking of making the dough ahead of time, then freezing for later use. Can’t wait to try them!
These look delicious! Can the dough be frozen after shaping them into mounds? I was thinking of mixing up the dough, then freezing for later use. Can’t wait to try them!
have you tried freezing the uncooked dough longer than a few days? Curious if I can get away with making a lot of that though and storing it for a while. My husband love them with M&Ms thank you again!
I think about 5-6 days is the most I’d go in the fridge before transferring the unbaked dough to the freezer. Even if you do freeze the dough, it’s not a big deal at all to just bake them off, maybe add another 1-2 mins to baking time if they’re rock hard when you put them in the oven.
I have a request. Can you format your recipes in such a way that when they print, it only prints on one page? I appreciate your initial descriptive paragraph but perhaps, that can be omitted when printing for general readability and also saving on ink.
There is a print icon in the recipe section right underneath the thumbnail image and if you click it, you can print in the more streamlined fashion you’re wanting.
Can these be made with m&m’s?
Yes, enjoy!
My sister in-law made these cookies and they were amazing!! She sent me this recipe and I want to try make them myself but I have been unable to find cornstarch..could you recommend an alternative for this instead?
Cornstarch is an extremely common ingredient in almost any grocery store in America in the baking aisle. If you live overseas, it may be a little more tricky but double-check your grocery store. There really isn’t an alternative.
Hello!
I made these cookies today and they did not come out chewy or very soft. They came out puffy (I did push them down), and kind of dry.
Any advice of what I could have done incorrectly? I fail miserably at making chocolate chip cookies all the time…
AH!
First read this on cookie baking success tips https://www.averiecooks.com/2014/02/the-best-soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.html and then do EVERYTHING I list, i.e. King Arthur flour, Silpats, chilling dough, etc. and that will help you in general.
As for these cookies being puffy and dry-ish, that sounds to me like you over-floured the dough. Too much flour will cause both things to happen so use a very light hand when measuring your flour in baking in general. Thanks for trying the recipe! (And also make sure NOT to overbake, that is also realllllly key!)
Hello!
Quick question. I made these cookies (which were loved by both my husband and I) and I rolled some of the dough into cookie-size balls and froze them for future use- now. :)
Do the temperature and cooking time need to be adjusted for frozen dough?
Emily
Maybe bake an extra 60 to 90 seconds, give or take. Just keep an eye on them in the last moments of baking. Glad you love them!
what is special about your ratio of sugars. I know you make a smaller batch of the traditional recipe for cc cookies, but why more brown sugar?
After testing tons and tons of recipes and making thousands of cookies, there is no magic ‘one ratio’ across the board. The ratio of brown sugar to white in a molasses cookie will be different than in a choc chip cookie. In this recipe, as written, that’s how I like the sugar ratio.
Brown sugar makes softer cookies and white sugar makes them crunchy. When you mix both they get to be crunchy from the outside with softer inside ;)
Is there any substitute for eggs in this recipe ?
I haven’t tried the recipe without eggs and can’t make any suggestions since I haven’t played tried an egg-free version.
You can use apple sauce as a substitute. I find it doesn’t bind as well though.
I’ve never tried applesauce in this recipe and can’t speak personally to if it will work or not.
Hi, So I did try these cookies, but they came out rather odd when baking them. The batch came out completely, well, melted. I cooked the first batch ( I only had one pan to you ) with grease proof paper, 6 cookies on the sheet, well spread apart. I took them out of the oven, the cookies melted, stuck to the grease proof paper. It took a good while but I managed to scrape off the cookies. These cookies, even though completely melted, did taste very good.
This might possibly be my fault, I did have to convert the Cups to Grams. So here is the recipe I followed by ( using this website, https://dish.allrecipes.com/cup-to-gram-conversions/ ) : 113 grams of butter, 57 grams of cream cheese, 55 grams of brown sugar, 50 grams of granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 64 grams of flour ( 2 1/4 cups of flour ), 2 teaspoons of cornflour ( I’m in Ireland, and couldn’t find cornstarch, so I assumed cornflour worked the same way ? ), 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 100 grams of mini chocolate chips. I obviously know I didn’t add enough flour, but I think I need more accurate measurements. Thank you in advanced.
Cornflour and cornstarch are not the same thing, at all. You can google about the differences if you’re interesting in learning more.
In terms of the conversions you used, because I have only made the recipe the exact way I posted it, I cannot say how accurate the recipe becomes when you convert it into grams from how I wrote it. Thanks for trying the cookies.
64g of flour is not nearly enough! The conversion for cup flour to grams is 1c = 136g. So you really should have 306g of flour. Always keep in mind the golden ratio for cookies: 1:2:3 that is, 1 part sugar, 2 parts butter(fat), and 3 parts flour.
Also using mini chocolate chips might have hurt too – they melt fast and tend to get liquidy in these longer cooking cookies. If you like solid globs of chocolate in your cookies then it’s probably okay, but I like to use regular chips or chunks.
And yes it kind of sucks when bakers don’t use weight measurements, always seems weird to me (and I’m American…).
“And yes it kind of sucks when bakers don’t use weight measurements…” <--- I do my best, I share recipes online for all the world to use for free; sorry that I can't please everyone.
These cookies had a great texture, but I personally felt that they lacked flavor depth. Perhaps salted butter would have been a better alternative.
Thanks for trying the recipe and everyone’s preference for salt in desserts is different so if you think salted butter would suit you better next time, go with that.
I can not wait to make these fabulous looking cookies! But, I have a question…. do you think it would be okay to double this recipe?
Probably would be just fine. Enjoy!
Must thank you very much for this recipe! I made it for the first time for my family today and was almost speechless at how fantastic these cookies turned out! I live a Ketogenic lifestyle, but I made room for these little beauties! Again, many thanks! :)
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you and that your family was happy, too!
Hi, I made these cookies a few days ago and these are honestly one of the BEST cookies my family and I have ever had! The little notes you wrote were very educational for me since this was my first time making any dessert from scratch. Very simple instructions, and what a wonderful turnout. The cookies are very filling too! I loved just how soft the cookies were. In the past, after the cookies were out of the oven and cooled they were already rock hard. But these stayed the exact same fluffy consistency the whole (2 days) they were available before eaten. My family and I aren’t real cream cheese fans, but I sometimes forgot that I put cream cheese in it, and I made them! Great recipe. I will definitely be coming back again and again to make these. Thanks!!
Thanks for trying the recipe and I’m glad it came out great for you! And I’m glad all my tips and tricks were helpful for you, too!