Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

Have some left over cream cheese? I know I did. 

I was stumbling along the internet checking up on some blogs and came across this awesome looking recipe from browneyedbaker. I was in the library on Tuesday night working on my homework and I became so stressed, I needed to bake. I remembered this recipe and the chunk of cream cheese sitting in my fridge so I decided to go home and bake. 
They're called Oreo Cheesecake Cookies and they are just delicious as well as super simple. If you like thin, soft, crunchy cookies, this recipe is for you!

What you'll need:

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies:

½ cup unsalted butter (room temp)
3 ounces cream cheese (room temp)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup mini chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate, I personally like it better!)
1 cup crushed Oreos

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until combined. Gradually add the flour until mixture is smooth. Mix in the chocolate by hand. I personally enjoy cutting my own chocolate into chunks because you can control the size and have big bites and well as small bites of chocolate. Form the dough into large balls (Approximately 1.5 - 2 inches in diameter) and then roll them in the crushed Oreos.

 Place the cookies on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or the edges start browning.

The parchment paper helps because the cream in the Oreos melts and caramelizes on the bottom, causing difficulty to transfer to a wire rack, etc. This recipe yields about 16 large cookies. I only placed one tray in the oven and had a little bit of dough left over. I threw in the remaining Oreos and crushed in half of a graham cracker sheet and dropped the heaping tablespoon into one of my silicon baking cups. The result: even better than the cookies. I'll try recreating it and post it as a new recipe! 

Enjoy!