Fillings For Cookies – The Most Delicious Ideas
Cookies are good in and of themselves, BUT if you are looking for a way to up your cookie game, you should certainly start making cookies with fillings!
But what are the best fillings for cookies? Some of the most delicious cookie fillings include cream cheese, peanut butter, chocolate, caramel, marshmallow crème, jam, lemon curd, and cinnamon buttercream. The key to achieving the most delicious flavor combinations is to make sure the filling goes well with the cookies.
Continue reading to learn why it is a good idea to stuff your cookies with various fillings and what are the best fillings for cookies. You will also learn what type of cookies these fillings pair best with!
The 17 Best Fillings For Cookies
You may love your cookies as is. But a cookie with a surprise is always a good idea. Adding a filling to your cookies will enhance their texture and flavor.
There are endless combinations you can create pairing delicious and interesting cookie fillings with different dough recipes. You can always find a cookie filling that suits your palate.
These are the most delicious cookie-filling ideas. If you have a favorite cookie recipe, you will surely find a filling to go with it in this list.
This list of cookie-filling ideas is also great for anyone on the hunt for new decadent cookie flavor combinations. Make sure to have your favorite cookie scooper handy!
1. Cream Cheese
If you have never made cookies with filling, then cream cheese is where you should start. Cream cheese has a sweet flavor with mild tanginess. Thanks to its delicate flavor profile, it pairs nicely with a range of ingredients and flavors.
Cream cheese makes a smooth creamy filling for cookies creating a nice contrast of textures.
Additionally, making a cream cheese filling for cookies is not hard at all. You only need to beat cream cheese with some powdered sugar and decide on a way to stuff your cookies with it.
You can make thin cookies and use the cream cheese filling to make sandwich cookies. Another great technique is freezing cream cheese spoonfuls and then molding the dough around them.
Best paired with: red velvet cookies, chocolate chip cookies, strawberry cookies, chocolate cookies.
2. Peanut Butter
If you want your cookies to be more filling and give you more energy, then you should certainly consider stuffing them with creamy and rich peanut butter. Additionally, it’s something you most likely have at home at all times.
You can use peanut butter as is if it is sweet enough for you. However, you can also mix it with powdered sugar to make it sweeter.
We recommend you consider the sweetness of the cookie dough so that the stuffed cookies don’t turn out to be overly sweet.
To make peanut butter cookies, freeze spoonfuls of peanut butter. Once you prepare the cookie dough, scoop a portion.
Make a crater in the dough and place the frozen peanut butter in it. Cover the peanut butter with cookie dough so that it doesn’t leak out of the cookies when you bake them.
Best paired with: chocolate cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, pumpkin cookies.
3. Chocolate
You can never go wrong with a chocolate filling for your cookies. Almost everyone has a type of chocolate they love. You can use dark, milk, or white chocolate to stuff your cookies or a combination of chocolates you love.
Is there a better feeling than biting into a soft cookie and finding out some gooey and delicious chocolate inside?
Chocolate is one of the most versatile cookie fillings. However, if you won’t be eating all the cookies warm, make sure to use a chocolate spread instead.
When the cookies cool, regular chocolate will firm up again and you may want to reheat the cookies before eating them later.
To make cookies with a chocolate filling, you can either stuff chocolate chips and chunks in cookie dough and bake, or sandwich the chocolate filling between two cookies.
Best paired with: vanilla cookies, chocolate cookies, oatmeal cookies.
4. Caramel
If you are the type of person that always goes with familiar flavors, caramel-filled cookies are another cookie variation you may like.
You can make the caramel filling from scratch if you have time or use chewy caramel candies instead. Simply put the caramel candies in the dough balls and bake.
If you enjoy caramel-filled cookies, you may try making them with salted caramel next time for a bolder and richer flavor.
Best paired with: chocolate chip cookies, brown cookies, sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies,
5. Marshmallow Crème
Marshmallow crème is a great filling idea for sandwich cookies. You can use store-bought marshmallow crème or make some yourself.
To make marshmallow crème from scratch you will only need corn syrup, egg whites, sugar, and vanilla extract for better flavor.
An easy way to make a marshmallow filling for cookies is to melt some marshmallows with corn syrup. If you are too lazy to do this too, simply stuff the cookies with marshmallows before baking them.
Best paired with: chocolate cookies, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies.
6. Nutella
One of the easiest ways to make your plain cookies taste so much better is to stuff them with Nutella, or any chocolate-hazelnut spread you like.
The best part about Nutella-stuffed cookies is that you don’t have to spend time on preparing the filling. Simply scoop teaspoons of Nutella and freeze them. Then, roll cookie dough around the frozen Nutella dollops.
Best paired with: chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate cookies.
7. Funfetti Frosting
If you need a cookie filling idea but don’t want anything complicated, then you can try making funfetti frosting. It’s easy, fun, yet delicious and will go well with many different cookies.
Mixing funfetti with cookie dough is a regular practice. So why not mix it with frosting to elevate your cookies?
We recommend you make buttercream frosting with butter. Funfetti frosting made with butter will turn out thicker. You can easily freeze spoonfuls of this frosting to use them to stuff cookie dough and then bake.
Best paired with: sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies.
8. Jam
Jam is the easiest filling you can use for cookies but it’s surely one of the best. And what’s good, you can use any fruit jam you like, be it homemade or store-bought.
When using jam for cookie filling, go with the thumbprint technique. Once your cookie dough is ready and you have divided it into portions, roll them into balls and make an indentation on each cookie with your finger.
Then fill each indentation with jam.
Depending on the jam you want to use to stuff the cookies, you may have various options for the cookie dough.
Plain sugar cookies will pair well with all jam flavors. Chocolate cookies, on the other hand, are especially good with raspberry, cherry, and orange jam.
Best paired with: sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies, chocolate cookies
9. Lemon Curd
Lemon curd is a refreshing filling for cookies. The buttery sweet lemon curd has a tart flavor. It will brighten your cookies in terms of not only taste but also appearance.
If you have never made lemon curd yourself, it’s high time you tried. While doing it may seem difficult, you only need a few ingredients and a proper cooking technique.
To make delicious lemon curd, you only need fresh lemons, egg yolks, butter, sugar, and a double boiler.
You can use lemon curd to make sandwich cookies. Alternatively, you can make thumbprint cookies with lemon curd filling. Make sure to bake the cookies and only then fill them with lemon curd.
Best paired with: Shortbread cookies, sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies.
10. Nuts
Chopped nuts are an excellent way to add more texture to your cookies. Walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and any nuts of your choice will work. Make sure you chop the nuts finely. You can also use a food processor to grind nuts.
If you want to sweeten the nut filling for cookies, mix some chopped raisins with the nuts. Chopped dates are another great option that will provide sweetness for the nut filling.
Best paired with: shortbread cookies, cinnamon cookies, oatmeal cookies, Hungarian cookies.
11. Strawberry Cheesecake
If you are craving a combination that is out of the box but still delicate, then you should certainly try stuffing your cookies with a strawberry cheesecake filling.
Making a real strawberry cheesecake may take a long time. These cookies, on the other hand, can be made within less than an hour while still featuring the sweet tanginess of this flavor combination.
For the strawberry cheesecake filling, we recommend you use fresh homemade strawberry jam. Beat the cream cheese with sugar and add in the jam.
Other ingredients, such as egg yolk or flour may be added to the filling for improved texture.
Best paired with: Graham cracker cookies, simple sugar cookies, chocolate cookies.
12. Pistachio Cream
Cookies are the ultimate comfort food. But there are still ways to elevate them and make them more elegant. One way to elevate plain sugar or chocolate cookies is to add a pistachio filling to them.
Pistachio cream is typically made with white chocolate and milk though you can also use heavy cream to make it.
You can use pistachio paste to make pistachio cream like gelato makers do. But for the best homemade pistachio cream, we recommend starting from scratch and using shelled unsalted pistachios.
If you don’t have the time to make pistachio cream, you can buy it. As the flavor and ingredient list of store-bought pistachio cream varies from brand to brand, buy and use the one you like.
Once you have your pistachio cream ready, use it to make cookie sandwiches. Another great option is to make thumbprint cookies that will showcase the beautiful green color of the delicious pistachio cream.
Best paired with: sugar cookies, chocolate cookies.
13. Oreos
If there is one thing that can make Oreo cookies taste better is using them to stuff other cookies. In fact, people love Oreos so much that they have come up with numerous Oreo-based desserts.
Stuffing cookies with Oreos not only adds another dimension to the flavor of the cookies but also creates an amazing texture.
Different Oreo flavors are now available. But we recommend you use the classic ones to stuff your cookies. You can go with Oreos with double filling if you want the inside of the cookies to be creamier.
You may need quite a lot of cookie dough to cover the Oreos, especially if you choose the Mega Stuff ones.
Best paired with: chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies.
14. Cinnamon Buttercream
Cinnamon is one of those warm spices that are especially popular in fall and winter. But if you love cinnamon, there is no reason why you can’t make cinnamon-flavored desserts year-round.
For the ultimate best cinnamon filling for cookies make cinnamon buttercream.
To make this fragrant cookie filling, you will need to beat butter, heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract at medium speed until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the cinnamon powder to taste.
When the filling is ready, make cookie sandwiches using your favorite cookies. Cinnamon buttercream pairs exceptionally well with pumpkin cookies
Best paired with: sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies, oatmeal cookies.
15. Peppermint Patties
Peppermint patties are another fun cookie filling you can use if you are feeling like making stuffed cookies but don’t have the time to prepare a filling.
With this said, if you happen to have homemade peppermint patties, you can surely use them too.
To make cookies with peppermint patty filling, first, make some chocolate cookie dough.
Divide the cookie dough into portions. Flatten each piece of dough and place a mini peppermint patty on it. Fold the dough around the patty and bake.
Best paired with: chocolate cookies.
16. Brownies
If brownies and cookies are two of your favorite sweet treats and you are having a hard time choosing between the two, combine them!
To make brownie-stuffed chocolate chip cookies you will need to make cookie dough and some brownie batter.
Start with making a rich chocolatey brownie batter. You will need to freeze the batter in small scoops to be able to stuff cookie dough with it later.
While the brownie filling is in the freezer, proceed to make your cookie dough following your trusty recipe.
When the brownie balls are all frozen, place them on a ball of cookie dough and roll the dough around it to fully cover the brownie filling.
If you do everything right, your cookies with brownie filling will have an amazing texture – crispy around the edges and fudgy and chewy inside.
Best paired with: chocolate chip cookies
17. Dates
Cookies with fillings are great. But as you can see, in the majority of the cases, adding a filling to your cookies means adding extra sugar and calories.
If you want to enhance your cookies while avoiding added sugar, use chopped dates for the filling.
Many recipes suggest combining chopped dates with sugar for cookie filling. However, you can skip the added sugar as dates are naturally sweet. Cook the chopped dates with water until you achieve a smooth and thick mixture.
The best way to use date filling for cookies is to layer it between two thin cookies.
Best paired with: oatmeal cookies, plain sugar cookies
If you’d like even more amazing cookie ideas, check out this great video from the folks over at Tasty!
