Preheat oven to convection 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix cream cheese with sugar and vanilla with whisk (by hand) or whisk attachment (on stand mixer). Once well combined, scoop cream cheese in 1 tbsp balls (14-16 grams) onto a parchment paper lined tray/plate. Place this in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour.

To start cookie dough, beat room temperature butter in stand mixer/by hand for 3-5 minutes (or until butter turns off-white).

Add in brown sugar and white sugar to your butter. Beat the sugar with the butter until the mixture is fluffy (about 2 minutes).

Add your large egg and stir into mixture. Mix in vanilla extract, strawberry extract, and red/pink food coloring (optional).

Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to form your dough. If using a stand mixer, mix on low. If mixing by hand, use a spatula.

Use a ⅓ cup scoop (approximately 80 grams) and place a single ball of dough on baking tray. THIS IS YOUR TEST COOKIE!

If your test cookie came out flat, add a couple more tablespoons of flour to allow cream cheese to stay in the center of the cookie when baking.

If your cream cheese balls are frozen well, flatten out your cookie dough in your palm and place 1 cream cheese ball in the center. Fold the cookie dough around until it is well secured in the center. Pour sugar into a separate bowl and roll cookie dough in.

Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes (for ⅓ cup scoop).

For perfectly circular cookies, use a circular bowl/cup/cookie cutter and swirl around your fresh cookie to make edges clean.

Let cookies sit on tray for about 10 minutes before removing.

You can eat these fresh and/or put these in the fridge to store up to 10 days!