Coconut Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Humidity is bad.

Humility is good. 

There is a difference, although my spell check doesn't seem to think so!  More on that later.

These are my dream cookie. Here's why. The chocolate cookie itself is soft and fudgy, yet firm enough to picked up and held (except in 80% humidity weather). Then, once you bit into the cookie, there is a creamy cheesecake filled with coconut shreds. Can we talk flavor and texture heaven?  Finally, I dusted them with cinnamon and sugar. They looked amazing, they tasted amazing, you must make these.  My dream cookie.

However, you would be better off taking these Rice Krispy Treats or these peanut butter no bake bars when going to a potluck dinner outside when it's 80 degrees with almost unbearable humidity levels. When you do that, these cookies turn into squishy desserts strongly resembling their form before they were baked.  Delicious yes, as appealing?  Not really. We did bring home an empty box (downside of sharing:) but save these for your air conditioner, okay? 

Then, once you've got yourself in your air conditioned house, you can take your batch of cookies and think, you know, in the name of humility, I'm going to keep these all here that way I won't have any chance of being prideful about them. I'm not being selfish, I'm being humble!  

Them you can stick one of these in your mouth and savor your air conditioned glory.

Ok. Hope you all realize I was joking.

Humility is something you have to have a heart change to even truly desire.  The hardest part about humility is not being humble, but willing to be humble.  As our first volleyball tournament is this next weekend, I've been reminded part of teamwork is humility. If I'm not willing to make choices that will help the team and not just me, then I am not a good team member. Every role is important even though some  don't get any glory. Needing that glory, that attention, is a red flag. If I have to have affirmation based on my playing to have a good attitude, then Houston, we have a problem!  On a team, you win together and you lose together. And teamwork isn't isolated to sports. My family is a team. One that will last way longer than sports. As much time as I invest in volleyball, something that only lasts a couple years, how much more should be invested in relationships that will last my whole life?

Humility, putting others needs first. 

Humidity, melting incredible cookies into dough. 

Avoid the latter. The humidity part, I mean. 

 Coconut Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Recipes Source: The Sweet {Tooth} Life.  Cookie base slightly adapted from Craving Chronicles

Coconut Cheesecake Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut

Cookie:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 ounces cream cheese (I used low fat)
6 tablespoons butter, melted and still warm
1/3 cup applesauce
1 large egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon brewed coffee

Cinnamon and sugar for dusting

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Combine sugar, cream cheese and melted butter in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Whisk in applesauce. Add egg, milk, coffee, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture. Fold in with a rubber spatula until all flour is incorporated and a soft dough forms.

Refrigerate dough overnight or up to four days. 

For filling: Beat softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Stir in coconut shreds. Using this method, spoon small balls of cream chess filling onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and freeze for an hour. 

After dough has chilled and cheesecake filling has frozen, remove dough from refrigerator.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets and preheat oven to 350. 

Roll dough into 15-20 uniform sized balls. If dough becomes too sticky, return to refrigerator. Place one ball of frozen cheesecake in the center of the cookie dough and wrap the dough around it. Place on prepared cookie sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. 

Bake 1 sheet at time at 350°F for 11-13 minutes, until cookies are set and tops have cracked. (They might not look done, but don’t over bake!) Cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.