In preparation for a Christmas Cookie Exchange with several of my friends tonight, I made our favorites – Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts. The cookies have cream cheese in them and the frosting is made with cream cheese. Let’s just say these cookies are soft, rich, and I have to work hard to keep myself out of them.
Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts
1/2 cup melted butter
4 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup sugar (sucanat works, as does brown sugar)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat flour)
Stir together melted butter, softened cream cheese, and sugar. Add egg, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir in flour until well combined. (Use a little less or a little more flour as needed.) Place dough in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Once dough is chilled, roll on a well floured surface and cut out into desired shapes. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-15 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. (I prefer mine just barely done so that they stay soft!) Allow cookies to cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 1/2 cups unbleached organic powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whip butter and cream cheese with beaters until fluffy. Add vanilla and powdered sugar and beat until mixed thoroughly.
Makes about 30 cookies.
My (poor, deprived, starving) boys were not very happy with me when I told them that most of the cookies were going to the Christmas Cookie Exchange. Not to worry, I told them. They could have all the broken cookies. Considering the fact that I am not a perfectionist, I’d say they made out just fine with a lovely assortment of broken stars, branchless trees, and torn stockings.
If you’d like a printout of the Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts recipe, you can download it here. I needed to print off the recipe anyway for the cookie exchange, so thought I’d share it with you too!
These look delish! I love cream cheese. :)
Silly question I am sure but do these need to be refrigerated?
Not a silly question. They are full of dairy! I don’t refrigerate them, but our house is typically on the cool side. If you keep your house really warm, you may feel better about keeping them in the fridge.
Great, thanks. I’m sure they don’t last very long at your house! :)
Probably won’t last long here either. :)
How many cookies (approximately) does one recipe make?
These look SOOOO good!!!
This makes about 30 cookies.
Laura, I just wanted to say thanks! We’ve replaced our brown sugar with Muscovado and I don’t know how much healthier it is but I think it tastes better than brown sugar. I thank you for introducing us to this sugar.
Thank you for the cookie recipe! It sounds wonderful!
Also I decided I don’t have to have a wheat free pie crust. W W flour and palm shortening are the best.
Thanks for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it! You get a chuckle out of me every time. Love the clever “branchless trees and torn stockings” line. So cute!
Thanks for the recipe, I’m just beginning my Christmas cookie baking.
We made these today. They were fabulous. We doubled the recipe for the cookies and forgot to double the icing. However, we had plenty of frosting… I’m really glad we didn’t double it or we would have had it coming out our ears!
I have been on the lookout for a new Christmas cookie recipe. We have an egg allergy, and since this recipe only has one egg I think I may be able to adapt it. Thank you for posting, I LOVE cream cheese! Can’t wait to try em.
How did you know that every holiday season (we make sugar cookies for lots of holidays), I search for the perfect sugar cookie recipe? I am so grateful you posted this! They don’t spread too much, which has always been a problem, and my husband, who would prefer no WW flour in his cookies, said these are the best ever. Thank you!
They look yummy!
I make goodies for my son to take into work. They love him. These will help.
Cream cheese is one of my favorite and I usually use it for cupcakes. This is also a good idea and everyone would surely enjoy cream cheese coated cookies. It is a nice pastry for the holidays.
Have you ever frozen these without frosting? Or frozen the dough?
Laura has baked them, then frozen them and later frosted them. They turned out great!