Wow, what a tasty mouthful!

I made these cheesecake stuffed triple chocolate chunk pudding cookies on a whim, I felt like baking something and this was the first thing that came to mind with the stuff I had in the house. I love pudding cookies, I don’t think there’s any better cookie in the world. I was first introduced to them by Leah’s family, I was told their chocolate chip cookies are the best in the world and I wasn’t disappointed. After making their recipe a few times I branched out and started trying different things. Pudding cookies are wonderfully soft, they make for the perfect cookie texture!

Since making a peanut butter stuffed version of these cookies and making them about a thousand times (I’ll be making them again this weekend) I knew I had to change it up a little, cheesecake is the perfect thing to go inside a cookie isn’t it? I’ve also made a Nutella version of these so maybe I’ll post those up one day too.

This week’s post is being dedicated to my best friend, Leah. She is graduating Summa Cum Laude from Savannah College of Art and Design and I couldn’t be more proud of her (she’s also getting an academic achievement award). It’s an extra big deal because she’s been in college for a few years longer than most people, she originally went to Georgia Tech but after a few years there she realised it’s not what she wanted to so transferred to SCAD and since the schools are so vastly different not many credits transferred over, so she was more of less starting her college career over again! She’s done amazing things though and she is so good at what she does, so much so she already has a full time job in her chosen field, one she’s been working full time since January while also going to school full time – how she’s kept her straight A’s I will never know (SCAD is NOT an easy school, they work you to the bone!). So this weekend I am partying with her (as well as at Fiesta Friday of course) and celebrating her great achievements. I will be making the peanut butter stuffed version of these cookies for her party so it’s only fitting I post the recipe today

I have posted the base recipe for these cookies before but I’ll include it in this post too, I don’t know about you but I get easily confused jumping between blog posts to get parts of recipes! It’s a very simple recipe anyway so I have no excuse not to to type it up again! The most important ingredient for these cookies is instant pudding mix, which is pretty hard to get in the UK. I normally stock up on some when I’m in the US and take it back with me so I can have yummy cookies all year round! You can buy it on amazon though and you might even be able to substitute Angel Delight (I keep meaning to try this to see how it works, one day I will!). These cookies also are packed full of dark chocolate chunks and milk chocolate chunks (I actually used Galaxy Counters because I had some in the house) and of course cocoa powder – so really these are quadruple chocolate but I prefer saying triple (I’m set in my ways, I don’t know what to tell you haha)

I’ll be bringing these yummy cookies along to Fiesta Friday so I hope everybody likes them! After you’ve finished drooling over Angie’s yummy vegetarian dish, please do go check out the co-hosts Mr Fitz and Justine, their blogs won’t fail to inspire you!

And I hope I have time to bake this week otherwise I’ll be bringing cookies to the party three weeks in a row!

[recipe title=”Cheesecake Stuffed Triple Chocolate Pudding Cookies” servings=”18-24″]

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 box instant chocolate pudding (NOT sugar free or cook-and-serve)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 12 oz chopped dark chocolate
• 6oz chopped milk chocolate

For the Peanut Butter stuffing:

• 4oz cream cheese, full fat
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Method:

• Mix the cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla together in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge while you make cookies
• Mix the flour, bicarb and cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside
• Combine butter, sugars, pudding mix and vanilla in a mix bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully combined. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until just combined, scraping down the sides to make sure all is incorporated.
• Stir in chopped chocolate by hand until evenly dispersed.
• Scoop about 2 tbsp of cookie dough per cookie and roll into balls. Place onto lined cookie sheet and flatten into disks. Take cream cheese filling out of fridge and spoon a small amount (about 1/2 tsp) into centre of cookie disks. Roll the cookie around the cream cheese filling, ensuring no cream cheese can be seen and roll back into balls (some may peek through, don’t worry about that too much). Place on cookie sheet with about 2 inches between each cookie, they shouldn’t spread too much but you want to leave plenty of room either way.
• Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours, this will stop the cookies from spreading and flattening out too much.
• Preheat the oven to 350F and bake for about 15 minutes, until cookies are just set around edges and tops.
• Leave to cool on wire rack. They are great eaten when still warm though.

Notes

• Store cookies in an air tight container and keep in fridge
• You can flavour the cheesecake with whatever you like too, just stir in a couple teaspoons of jam or curd or replace the vanilla with another extract

[/recipe]