Deliciously soft and thick banana pudding cookies with a creamy cheesecake filling, complete with crushed vanilla wafers. All the things we love about banana pudding made into the ultimate banana cookie!

My family absolutely loves my banana pudding. When I started to think of all the things that I could use this flavor with, I thought of cookies.

The banana pudding cookies would be great even without the cheesecake filling, so you could leave that out. But, I think the cheesecake filling really adds that extra creamy dreaminess that imitates the thick cool whip or whipped topping layer on top of your banana pudding. Some folks even put cream cheese in their banana pudding!

I also wanted to include vanilla wafers in the cookie dough, because in my mind banana pudding is not complete without them. It might even be my favorite part of banana pudding. It's just a signature ingredient to truly complete the layered textures of banana pudding.

Banana Pudding Cookie Ingredients

• all purpose flour
• light brown sugar
• granulated white sugar
• banana instant pudding mix
• unsalted butter
• vanilla wafers
• egg
• baking soda
• salt
• vanilla
• powdered sugar
• cream cheese

How to Make Banana Pudding Cookies

This cookie dough is so easy to whip up and easy to work with. First, we will whisk together our dry ingredients - flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Next, use a stand mixer to cream the room temperature butter and both sugars together to create a light and fluffy base. If your butter is not softened at room temperature (around 65 degrees), it will not cream together as easily with the sugars. Once creamed together, add in egg and vanilla, then mix until combined.

Next, add in the dry ingredient mixture in three separate additions mixing just until combined.

Lastly, crush vanilla wafers either in a food processor or by hand. This part is completely personal preference. If you use a food processor, you will have much finer crumbs that will blend into the dough uniformly. I personally prefer to put my vanilla wafers in a zip top bag and crush the wafers into a mix of fine crumbs and larger crushed chunks.

Once you have your crushed wafers, fold into the cookie dough with a spatula. Do not use your mixer at this point! You want to mix them in by hand. The dough will be thick!

Once cookie dough is complete, place the dough into the refrigerator while you make the cheesecake filling.

Place cold cream cheese, powdered sugar (sift sugar if it is lumpy), and vanilla into a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until thoroughly combined and uniform.

Assembly

Scoop two 1 ½ tablespoons of cookie dough balls for every one cookie. I like to scoop one ball and set it on top of the other. This equals one cookie. Using a medium cookie scoop is the best way to portion out the cookie dough.

Then, we will place the cheesecake filling in between these two cookie balls. By portioning out the cookie dough like this, it ensures you have an even top half and bottom half of the cookie with the cheesecake filling perfectly stuffed right in the middle.

Scoop a ½ tablespoon of cheesecake filling and place in the middle of the two cookie dough balls. Use the palms of your hands to roll and pinch the seams together on the sides of the cookie to ensure your cheesecake filling is secure in the middle of the cookie dough.

Tips:

• Use a tablespoon measuring spoon to get the perfect amount of cheesecake filling. Avoid overstuffing the cookie as the filling.
• Make sure your cookie dough and cheesecake filling are cold before assembling stuffed cookies. This will help the cookies keep their shape and make them easier to shape while you roll and seal the seams of the cookies to keep the filling in.
• Use a cookie scoop to measure out your cookie dough, ensuring each ball is equal size.
• Add some crushed vanilla wafers on top of the stuffed cookies before baking to ensure you can see them on the outside once baked. This gives a hint to what the flavor of the cookie is.
• Once the cookies come out of the oven, use a glass to smoosh them down just a tad to encourage a little bit of spreading while allowing the cookie to still stay thick!
• Only bake until lightly golden. If you overbake, you could ruin the texture of the cookie.
• After the banana cookies are baked, use a measuring cup or flat surface of a heavy bottom glass and gently smoosh the cookie down just a tiny bit! This creates a denser and more flat but still super thick cookie. The cookies will remain thick after being baked, so I find pushing them down a bit gives them the full delicious cookie effect.

Equipment for Banana Pudding Cookies

I would highly recommend using a stand mixer for the cookie dough and cheesecake filling mixture. It will come together quickly and with this being a thicker dough, you want to really give the mixture a good mixing! However, this could be done with a hand mixer, just keep in mind you will get a good arm workout and the dough will be super thick.

I also recommend mixing the vanilla wafers in with a heavy duty spatula or wooden spoon considering the thickness of the dough.

You will need measuring cups and spoons, as well as cookie baking sheets, parchment paper or silicone baking mats. A cooling rack is nice to have also but optional.

It is also best to portion out the cookie dough with a cookie scoop to ensure the same size cookies every time.

How to Store Banana Pudding Cookies

I recommend storing banana pudding cookies in an airtight container. Because they are stuffed with cheesecake filling, I recommend storing them in the refrigerator and eating them within 3 days for optimum freshness.

Enjoy them at room temperature or chilled. I prefer them chilled and think they are best this way due to the cheesecake filling, which is the opposite of how I enjoy most cookies! Chilled cookies is a thing though!

You can also freeze the cookie dough, or freeze pre-scooped stuffed cookies. Keep in mind that you will want to let them sit out for ten minutes or so before baking.

Top Tip

Make sure when you stuff your cookies to seal the edges and ensure all of that delicious cheesecake filling is tucked in well. You want to avoid it baking out the sides of the cookies. If this happens, they will still be delicious, but might not look "stuffed".

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