A warm, soft, and deliciously doughy graham-flavored cookie brimming with melty white chocolate chips, pockets of blueberry jam and cream cheese filling!
Does anyone else go through withdrawals when they haven’t eaten a specific food in a while? For me, that food seems to be pizookies. There’s just something about that delectably doughy, fresh-from-the-oven experience that I can’t get enough of. To me, pizookies are kind of like a hybrid of cookies and brownies. They’re soft and chewy like a cookie, yet THICK and moist like a brownie. Why WOULDN’T I be obsessed with them??
So since it’s been a whopping 104 days since my last pizookie recipe (but who’s counting?), I decided to make this Blueberry Cheesecake Pizookie…
Complete with a soft and slightly cinnamony graham cookie base, rich white chocolate chips, luscious pockets of cream cheese filling and blueberry jam, this pizookie contains ALL of the delicious elements of a Blueberry Cheesecake. And with a cool and creamy scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, this dessert has heavenly written ALL. OVER. IT.
While it might not seem like it, pizookies are actually much easier to make than cookies. Since everything is baked up in one cast iron skillet, you don’t have to worry about individually rolling dozens of cookies. And as opposed to baking several batches of cookies, pizookies only require one round of baking.
To start things off, you’ll make the cream cheese filling. Since it requires some chilling time beforehand, it’s best to do this step first. All you have to do is combine some cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla in a bowl. Once it’s completely smooth, grab a couple of spoons and drop teaspoon-sized dollops of the filling onto a parchment paper-lined plate. Place the dollops in the freezer for at least 30 minutes so that they can firm up.
Now it’s time to move onto the dough. Luckily, it’s a rather simple one-bowl recipe. Start off by creaming the butter and brown sugar together until nice and creamy. Then add your egg and vanilla, mixing until combined. Finally, stir in your flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, white chocolate chips, and crushed graham cracker crumbs. You can either use honey or cinnamon graham crackers. Being the cinnamon-sugar addict that I am, I like to use cinnamon grahams over honey if given the option.
Whichever option you decide to go with, make sure to crush them up super duper finely, so that they’re able to melt into the dough as they bake. You don’t want large chunks of graham crackers peeking out. To crush the graham crackers, you can either seal them in a plastic bag and “bulldoze” them with a rolling pin, or pulverize them in a food processor.
Now it’s time to assemble the pizookie! Simply press half of the dough into a 10-inch greased cast iron skillet. Then evenly space the frozen cream cheese dollops on top. Take some blueberry jam and drop teaspoonfuls of it in between the cream cheese dollops. Then place the remaining dough on top. To ensure that everything is completely covered, the best technique is to take a portion of dough, flatten it between your palms, then lay it on top, piecing the dough together like a puzzle.
Once the pizookie is baked and out of the oven, I recommend waiting at least 20 minutes to slice into it. Since cast iron skillets retain their heat for quite a while after baking, it takes a while for the pizookie to cool down. If you prefer more solid pockets of cream cheese filling and blueberry jam (as pictured), you’ll want to increase the waiting time to at least 45 minutes.
And of course, a pizookie hasn’t reached its full potential until it’s been crowned with a scoop of ice cream! Although most flavors would go incredibly well with this Blueberry Cheesecake Pizookie, you really can’t beat the simple yet heavenly sweetness of creamy vanilla ice cream. The key is to give the ice cream a few minutes to soften as it melts down the sides of the pizookie. However, if you just can’t help yourself, I wouldn’t blame you for diving right in!!
Blueberry Cheesecake Pizookie
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Filling:
- 2 Tablespoons cream cheese softened
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter softened
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
Graham Cookie Dough:
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temp.
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 3.25 whole crackers)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup white chocolate chips
For Assembly:
- 3 Tablespoons Blueberry jam
Instructions
Make the Cream Cheese Filling:
- Place the cream cheese, butter, and salt in a medium bowl. Using a hand beater (or wooden spoon), beat the ingredients together until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla, followed by the powdered sugar, mixing until combined.
- Spoon teaspoon-sized dollops of the filling onto a wax paper-lined plate. Freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Make the Cookie Dough:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and continue mixing until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon, and mix on medium-low speed until just combined. Dough should look crumbly. Stir in the chocolate chips.
To Assemble:
- Press half of the cookie dough into a 10-inch greased skillet. Place the frozen cream cheese filling dollops evenly over the dough. Drop teaspoonfuls of the blueberry jam in between the areas surrounding the cream cheese filling dollops. Cover with the remaining dough by pressing portions of dough between your palms, then piecing them together on top. Make sure all of the cream cheese filling and jam are covered.
- Bake for 25-27 minutes, or until the edges are set and the center looks glossy and not quite done. Pizookie will continue to bake as it cools.
- Wait at least 25 minutes before slicing into the pizookie.*
- Slice pizookie into wedges and serve warm with ice cream!