Toss out all your other sugar cookie recipes because I’m going to share my recipe for the BEST cream cheese sugar cookies! This is by far the best tasting sugar cookie I’ve ever had. It has the perfect amount of tanginess and moist fluffiness thanks to the cream cheese. It’s simply divine! It especially makes for good gifts. So sit back and drink some hot cocoa while you read this post.
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Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. I love being with my family and making happy memories more than anything else. And since we love to eat really good food, making cookies is a beloved tradition in our home. I especially love making these cream cheese sugar cookies with my girls and having them help me decorate them. It’s such a special time to make memories along with baking delicious cookies.
If you’ve never had cream cheese sugar cookies before, I want to encourage you to try these! Most sugar cookies are somewhat crunchy and in my opinion, a little bit flavorless…even with the added sugar sprinkles or icing. I love the tanginess and moist fluffiness that the cream cheese adds to these cookies. It’s a really great secret ingredient to spice up traditional sugar cookies!
Instructions for Making Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Equipment:
The equipment you’ll need includes an electric mixer, bowl, measuring cups and spoons, a bench/bowl scraper (or knife or thin spatula), rolling pin, cookie sheet, plastic wrap, parchment paper, and cookie cutter.
Ingredients:
This recipe makes 16 good-size cream cheese sugar cookies but the recipe doubles easily if you need to make cookies for a crowd.
For the ingredients, you’ll need one cup of sugar (I prefer organic cane sugar but use what you have), two cups of flour, one cup (two sticks) of room-temperature butter, three ounces of room-temperature cream cheese, 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract, one room-temperature egg, and some sprinkles for decorating. I like to use my homemade butter, cream cheese, and vanilla extract but store bought works, too.
Instructions:
First, mix together the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, vanilla extract, almond extract, and egg yolk. Make sure your dough is blended well. Then add your flour and mix well.
Use your bowl scraper to scrape out your dough onto some plastic wrap.
Wrap up your dough tightly and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours.
(Note: If your kids have a tradition of licking the beaters after making cookie dough, they probably won’t enjoy this batter very much. The cream cheese and almond extract are pretty powerful. I expected my kids and I to enjoy the taste of the dough but it just wasn’t so! Don’t worry. After these cookies are baked, the flavors really blend and mellow out. It’s just really strong before they go into the oven.)
After at least two hours, lightly flour your kitchen counter or a wooden cutting board. Take your dough out of the plastic wrap, cut it in half, and refrigerate half while you work with the other half. Also, preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
Your cold dough will be hard at first. Using your floured rolling pin, push down on the dough until you can start rolling it out on your floured counter or cutting board. Try to get the dough to be 1/4 inch thick. Then dip your cookie cutter into some flour and start cutting out your shapes. If your dough starts to stick to the counter or your cutting board, scrape your bench scraper under the cookie to lift it up.
Place your cookie shapes onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Decorate with sprinkles or leave them plain.
Bake in a 375°F (190°C) oven for 7-10 minutes (depending on cookie size and thickness) until the edge of the cookies are only barely browned. (See example below.) You want the center of these cookies to be soft and fluffy…not hard hockey pucks.
Let your cookies cool down on separate parchment paper, wax paper, or a cooling rack.
*Repeat*
Then gather your dough scraps together, roll it out, and cut out more cookie shapes. Your dough will start to get warm and sticky, so you’ll need to keep adding flour to your cutting board (or counter) and your rolling pin as you work through your dough. Use your bench scraper as necessary to scrape up sticky dough.
Once your first half of the dough is used, you can start on the second half that’s been in your refrigerator. You can also freeze your dough…especially if you started with a double portion of the recipe. Just make sure it’s sealed in an air-tight container in your freezer.
Icing Options
These sugar cookies are great whether they’re plain, or they have sugar sprinkles on top, or they’re iced with cream cheese icing. Let your family decide and do what they enjoy. Part of the fun is decorating the cookies together.
How to Store Your Cookies
Eat these cookies within three days if you keep them on your counter. I like to keep them in a sealed container after they have cooled down completely. The cookies won’t dry out if they’re stored this way. Alternatively, you can refrigerate or freeze your cookies for later.
We usually make a variety of cookies before Christmas and save the best ones we want Santa to have in freezer bags in the freezer. I’m sure Santa appreciates this.
Recipe Card for Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- electric mixer (You can also mix by hand.)
- bowl
- measuring cups and spoons
- bench/bowl scraper
- Rolling Pin
- cookie sheet
- plastic wrap
- parchment paper
- cookie cutter
Ingredients
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room-temperature
- 3 ounces cream cheese, room-temperature
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond extract
- 1 egg yolk, room-temperature
- 2 cups flour
- colored sugar sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, vanilla extract, almond extract, and egg yolk until well blended. Then add in the flour.
- Scrape out the dough onto plastic wrap, wrap it up tight, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Lightly flour your kitchen counter or a wood cutting board. Unwrap your cold dough, chop it in half with your bench scraper, and put half of the dough back in the plastic wrap to store in the refrigerator. Work with just one half of the dough at a time.
- The dough will be firm at first but use your floured rolling pin to roll the dough out until it's about 1/4 inches thick.
- Cut out shapes with your lightly floured cookie cutter. Place shapes on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and decorate with sprinkles.
- Bake in a 375°F (190°C) oven for 7-10 minutes (depending on cookie size and thickness) until the edge of the cookies are only barely browned.
- Gather the leftover dough and repeat the process of rolling it out and cutting shapes to make cream cheese sugar cookies with the remaining dough. (Tip: Use your bench scraper to scrape up the shapes if they stick on your counter or cutting board.) After using the first half of the dough, get the rest of the dough out of the refrigerator and make more sugar cookies.
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What’s your favorite Christmas cookie? I’m simple…it’s got to be these chocolate chip cookies.
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These look wonderful!!
I don’t think I’ve ever made cream cheese sugar cookies, but it sounds amazing. I will have to give it a try this year with my kids!
I hope you all enjoy them as much as we have!
These sound so good and decadent. I want to make sugar cookies with my kids within the next week or so. I may have to try this recipe out!
I hope you do! Let me know how you like them.
These look so delicious and I can’t wait to make them!
They taste just as great as they look! Enjoy.
My wife’s relationship with Christmas has always been complicated. She isn’t in to the decorating as much but is starting to develop excitement over the skills and special types of food to make. I’ll show her this recipe and see if it peaks her interest