Copycat Chips Ahoy Stranger Things Cookies (Upside Down Cookies)
These copycat Chips Ahoy Stranger Things cookies bring the Upside Down straight to your baking sheet! They are dark, dramatic, double chocolate cookies with a bright strawberry cream cheese filling hiding in the center. Crack one open and that bright red middle against the inky black cookie is pure Hawkins drama. Totally 80s, totally binge-worthy.
Here’s my honest take: the limited edition bags vanish from shelves fast, and between us, the homemade version beats the packaged one anyway. Real butter, real cream cheese, and black cocoa do what a factory line can’t. I have a soft spot for recreating nostalgic snack-aisle treats at home, and if you do too, my cosmic brownie cookies are the other retro rabbit hole worth falling down.
About This Recipe
These are stuffed double chocolate cookies made with black cocoa and semi-sweet chips, wrapped around a frozen strawberry cream cheese filling tinted red with gel color. The batch makes 16 cookies with 12 minutes of prep, a 30 minute freeze for the filling mounds, and an 11 minute bake at 350 degrees. The filling must go into the dough frozen solid, and the cookies come out of the oven looking underbaked on purpose.
Recipe Snapshot
Prep Time: 12 minutes
Cook Time: 11 minutes
Freeze Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 53 minutes
Servings: 16 cookies
Difficulty: Moderate
Perfect For: Stranger Things watch parties, Halloween cookies, themed birthdays, movie nights, bake sales, and chocolate lovers
Main Ingredients: Cream cheese, strawberry extract, red gel food color, black cocoa, chocolate chips, butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, and cornstarch
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Why This Recipe Works
The frozen filling is the real trick here. Cream cheese, powdered sugar, strawberry extract, and red gel food color are mixed together, then piped or spooned into small mounds and frozen. That freezer time helps the filling firm up so it can be tucked inside the cookie dough without smearing everywhere.
The cookie dough works because it has enough structure to wrap around the filling. Butter and sugars give the cookies richness and chew, black cocoa brings that dark Oreo-style flavor, and cornstarch helps create a soft, tender texture. Once the cookies bake, the outside sets while the center stays creamy and bright.
The bake time matters, too. These cookies may look slightly underbaked at first, but they continue setting as they cool. Pulling them at the right time keeps the centers soft instead of dry.
The Ingredient Breakdown
Top Tip for a “Fabulous” Finish
Keep the filling mounds in the freezer until the exact second you stuff each cookie. Pull them all out at once and the last few soften into sticky messes that tear the dough and leak in the oven. I work three at a time: grab three pucks, stuff three cookies, go back for three more. Cold filling melts slower in the oven, which gives the dough time to set a seal around it.
How to Make Stranger Things Cookies
Step 1: Mix the Strawberry Filling
In a small bowl, cream together the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, red gel color, and strawberry extract until completely smooth. The filling should be silky and streak-free, with the red fully blended into an even, vivid color. If you see pale marbling, keep mixing until it disappears.
Step 2: Pipe and Freeze the Portals
Transfer the filling to a zip-top bag, snip off a corner, and squeeze small, flat, circular mounds onto a parchment-lined tray. Aim for discs about the size of a quarter and no taller than your thumbnail. Freeze for 30 minutes, until the mounds are firm enough to pick up without denting. Frozen solid is the goal; anything softer will leak later.
Step 3: Cream the Butter and Sugars
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until the mixture is well creamed with soft peaks. It should look lighter in color and feel fluffy when you drag a spatula through it, closer to frosting than to wet sand.
Step 4: Add the Egg and Vanilla
Mix in the vanilla extract and egg until fully incorporated. The batter will turn glossy and smooth, and it should ribbon slightly off the beaters. Scrape the bowl once here so nothing hides at the bottom.
Step 5: Build the Black Dough
Add the black cocoa, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt first, and give everything a gentle mix with your spatula so the cocoa doesn’t mushroom-cloud out of the bowl. Then slowly add the flour and mix until combined. You’ll end up with a very tight ball that feels kinda dry but looks moist, and that’s exactly right. It’s a strange texture to trust the first time, but that density is what holds the filling in. Fold in the chocolate chips last.
Step 6: Stuff, Seal, and Shape
Scoop the dough with a medium cookie scoop onto a parchment-lined sheet. Take a ball, press a deep indentation with your thumb, nestle in a frozen filling mound, and fold the dough up and around to seal it completely. Roll the seam smooth between your palms, then flatten each ball into a round mound. No red should be peeking through anywhere. That flattened disc shape is how it bakes, so make them look the way you want the finished cookie to look.
Step 7: Bake and Hold Your Nerve
Bake for approximately 11 minutes. Here’s where you trust me: they will look underbaked, and they are not. Black cocoa hides every visual doneness cue you’re used to, so there’s no golden edge to wait for. My first test tray taught me that lesson when I left them in hunting for color that was never coming, and the edges went dry. Pull them at 11, let them set on the hot sheet for a couple of minutes, then move to a wire rack and cool 10 to 15 minutes before serving. The centers finish as they cool.
Serving Suggestions
Party favor bags: Two cookies in a clear cellophane bag tied with red and black ribbon sends every guest home with a portal of their own.
The full watch party spread: Stack these on a platter next to a big bowl of Instant Pot popcorn and dim the lights. Season finale catering, handled.
Milk flight: Serve with cold glasses of regular and strawberry milk for dunking. The strawberry milk plus that filling is almost too on-theme.
Upside down sundae: Crumble a warm cookie over vanilla ice cream so the red center swirls through. It looks unreal and tastes better.
Storage and Make-Ahead
Room temperature: Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days, and make sure they’re completely cool first so the trapped steam doesn’t soften them.
Refrigerator: These hold 3 to 4 days in the fridge, and honestly that’s where the creamiest centers live. The chilled filling firms up into true cheesecake territory.
Freezer, baked: Freeze baked cookies for up to 2 months and thaw in the fridge overnight.
Freezer, unbaked: This is the power move. Freeze the stuffed, shaped dough balls on a sheet until solid, then bag them. Bake straight from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes, and you have showstopper cookies on demand for the entire season drop.
For even more delicious recipes, you may like these:
Your Ticket to the Upside Down
These copycat Stranger Things cookies give you the whole experience: the inky black cookie, the melty chips, and that jaw-dropping red reveal in the middle, all without hunting store shelves for a limited edition bag. They’re a fun weekend project with a payoff that looks straight off a poster and tastes like it came from a real bakery.
Bake a batch for your next marathon night and report back in the comments. Did you stick with strawberry or run one of the variations? Drop a star rating on the recipe card while you’re there. It helps fellow fans find these, and it makes my day every single time.
Copycat Stranger Things ChipsAhoy Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 oz Cream cheese softened
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons Strawberry extract
- 1 teaspoon of Red food color gel approximately +/-
- Chocolate Cookies
- 1/2 cup Salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup Light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup Granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup Black cocoa
- 1 3/4 All purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons Corn starch
Instructions
- In a small bowl, cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, red food color, and strawberry extract.
- Place mixture in a zip lock bag with a the tip cut off, or spoon off small, flat, circular shaped mounds onto a parchment paper lined tray. Place in freezer for 30 minutes. I found squeezing them into mounds is more efficient!
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- In a large sized bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Ensure it is creamed well with soft peaks.
- Add in vanilla extract and egg. Mix until well incorporated.
- Add in your dry ingredients. Be sure to add in dark cocoa, corn starch, baking soda, and salt first. Give it a gentle mix with your spatula. Then slowly add in the flour and mix until well combined. You will have a very tight ball that feels kinda dry, but looks moist.
- Add in your chocolate chips. Measure with your heart if 2/3 cups isn’t enough. Then using a medium sized cookie scooper, scoop out the cookie dough onto parchment paper line cookie sheet.
- Grab your tray of frozen cream cheese mounds. Grab a ball of cookie dough and make an indention with your thumb and then place in the cream cheese. Fold the cookie dough around to seal it. I then flatten each into a round mound. This shape is how it will bake.
- Bake cookies for approximately 11 minutes. They might look like they’re undercooked, but they are not. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
Notes
Make it Your Own
- Raspberry portal: Swap strawberry extract for raspberry and add a tiny drop of purple with the red.
- Mint Upside Down: Use peppermint extract in the filling and white chocolate chips in the dough.
- Double chip: Mix semi-sweet + mini chips for extra pockets.
- Gluten-free: Use a 1:1 GF flour blend; check your extract/gel brand.
- Inside-out: Use classic cocoa cookies and tint the filling black with a touch of black gel.
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!FAQs: Straight from the Upside Down
Can I use natural cocoa instead of black cocoa?
You can, but you’ll lose the jet-black color and that Oreo-style depth that makes these look the part. Dutch-process cocoa is a much closer swap than natural, and adding a drop or two of black gel color closes the visual gap. Natural cocoa also behaves differently with baking soda, so expect a slightly different texture too.
Why did my filling leak out?
Two usual suspects: the seams weren’t fully sealed, or the filling wasn’t frozen firm when it went into the dough. Soft filling melts before the dough sets and finds any weak spot. Keep the mounds in the freezer until the moment you stuff each cookie, pinch the seams closed completely, and roll the ball smooth so there are no thin patches.
Why do my cookies look underbaked at 11 minutes?
They should, and that’s the design. Soft centers are the goal, and the cookies finish setting during their few minutes on the hot baking sheet after they come out. Black cocoa also hides the color cues you’d normally watch for, so trust the timer over your eyes. Overbaking these is the far more common mistake.
Why did my cookies spread too much?
Warm dough is almost always the culprit, especially in a hot kitchen after handling each ball to stuff it. Chill the shaped cookies for 10 minutes before baking, and double-check your flour measurement, since under-measured flour loosens the dough. An oven running cold stretches the melt phase and flattens them too.
Can I make the dough or cookies ahead of time?
Absolutely. The stuffed, unbaked balls freeze beautifully for up to 2 months and bake straight from frozen with 1 to 2 extra minutes. You can also make the filling mounds a day ahead and leave them in the freezer, or refrigerate the finished dough overnight and let it soften slightly before scooping.
Can I tint the filling brighter red?
Yes, and gel color is the way. Add it a drop at a time until you hit that vivid portal red, since gels color intensely without thinning the filling the way liquid coloring would. Keep in mind the red darkens slightly against the black cookie, so go a shade brighter than you think you need.
What do Stranger Things Chips Ahoy cookies taste like?
The store version is a chewy chocolate cookie with fudge chips and a sweet strawberry filling, like a chocolate covered strawberry in cookie form. This homemade copycat keeps that flavor idea and upgrades the execution: deeper chocolate from black cocoa, real cream cheese tang in the filling, and a soft, fudgy fresh-baked texture no shelf-stable cookie can match.
