White Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

These were featured last week on Good Things Utah. They were actually the prize winning cookie recipe from last year's state fair competition. I thought that I needed to try them as soon as I found out what was inside of them. You can make these with any kind of fruit topping...not just cherry. I'm not really fond of cherries myself but I bought them and just picked them out of the glaze. These were soooo good you have to try them.

White Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake Cookies
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/2 c shortening
1/4 c butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c white chocolate chips, melted
3 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c white chocolate chips
1 can cherry (or any other flavor) pie filling

Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3/4 c powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 TBSP milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugars, shortening, butter; add in eggs, and vanilla. Add in slightly cooled melted chocolate. Beat at medium speed until blended. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips. Cream together filling ingredients. Drop cookies by heaping TBSP about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cooking sheet. Make an indentation with finger on each cookie and drop in about 1 tsp filling. Bake 10-12 minutes. Let cool - spoon on pie filling. Store in the refrigerator. To make them extra special you can take the remaining white chocolate chips from the bag, melt them, and drizzle them on top of the entire cookie.

This recipe makes about 3 dozen and it seemed to make a little more for me when I made them yesterday!