Large Strawberry Cheesecake Cookies, A Skinny Way!

I first saw a similar recipe to this on one of Sandra Lee's Food Network shows. The only problem is she used full fat cream cheese and lots of butter. I liked the idea of the cookie but needed to work on getting the fat and calories way down without compromising the taste and texture of the cookie. So here is my skinny version that doesn't taste skinny at all, but it is! Yay!

Nutrition: calories 124, fat 3.2 g, carbs 26.5 g, fiber 1.7 g, sugars 11.1 g, sodium 136 mg, protein 4.4 g, Weight Watchers points 4



Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups finely crushed reduced fat graham crackers
1 cup whole Bobs Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8 tbsp Land O' Lakes light butter with canola spread
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, you will use the white for the cookie dough and the yolk for the filling
2 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 ounces fat free cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 for the cookie dough and 1 for the filling
1 tsp lemon or orange zest for the filling, optional
2 tbsp all fruit strawberry jam, warmed for a few seconds in the microwave

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, 2 cookies sheets lined with parchment paper and set aside.

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, flour and baking powder with a wire whisk to break up any lumps. Set aside for a couple of minutes.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat together the butter with the brown sugar using a hand held electric mixer. Add the egg white and vanilla extract. Beat until all is well mixed.
3. Now add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Don't over mix at this point. Rinse off your beaters for the next step.
4. Okay, one more bowl for the cookie filling.  Beat together the cream cheeses with the granulated sugar, egg yolk and the last teaspoon of vanilla.  At this point, if you want you can add the zest.
5. Using a small cookie scoop, place 12 cookies on each baking sheet. Spray the bottom of a teaspoon measuring spoon with cooking spray and make an indent in each cookie for the filling.
6. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 tsp of the filling for each cookie.
7. Bake the first batch on the top shelf of the oven for about 12 minutes, rotating the pan after 5 minutes.
8. Do this until all the cookies are done. You will have enough dough and filling for 28 cookies.
9. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
10. When all the cookies are cooled, drizzle your strawberry jam over each cookie. Take a bite and enjoy this wonderful, rich tasting cookie!

Makes 28 nice size cookies