Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar for 1-2 minutes.

Next, beat in the egg and vanilla.

Scrape down the bowl and add in the dry ingredients. Mix until mostly combined.

Gently fold in the freeze dried strawberries until just combined. Do not over mix!

Shape the dough into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to overnight.

When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface (or between two floured pieces of parchment paper), roll out ⅓ of the cookie dough to about ¼" thick. Keep the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge.

Cut out as many cookies as you can with a 3" cookie cutter.

Shape the remaining cookie dough into a disk and refrigerate for a few minutes if has become too warm.

Re-roll and continue cutting out until all dough is used up.

Place cutout cookie dough on the prepared baking sheets about an inch apart and freeze for at least 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes until barely golden around the edges.

Allow to cool completely before assembling with cheesecake filling.

Start with the pastry cream – heat the milk in a saucepan, and bring to a simmer or about 200 degrees F.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together for 2-3 minutes until light in color.

Once the milk is simmering, slowly pour half into the egg-sugar mixture, whisking at the same time to temper the eggs.

Pour everything back into the saucepan and heat over medium heat, whisking constantly. After a couple minutes, a layer of bubbles will form over the top and it will begin to thicken.

Once the bubbles disappear, continue whisking for one more minute, then remove from heat.

Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly up against the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for at least two hours or overnight. Alternatively, you could place the bowl of pastry cream over a water bath and whisk constantly until it cools down to 70 degrees F – you can immediately turn it into buttercream at this point.

If the pastry cream was chilled overnight, mix the pastry cream for about 10 minutes on low speed until it warms up to about 70 degrees.

Add the butter, a few cubes at a time, and beat on medium speed. If it looks curdled at all, continue beating on low speed until smooth.

Add the cream cheese, vanilla paste, and salt, and beat until fully incorporated.

Continue beating on low speed for several minutes until smooth.

Transfer filling to a piping bag with a large star piping tip (I used Ateco 868).

Pipe the filling onto the bottom cookie and gently press the paired cookie on top.

Place the assembled cookies in the fridge for a few minutes so the filling can thicken up.

Top with more freeze dried strawberries and enjoy!