These cream cheese sugar cookies are light, fluffy, and absolutely delicious! Make a batch, freeze half, and enjoy yummy sugar cookies all year long!
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My son doesn’t like chocolate so even though I personally would love to eat all the chocolate chip pudding cookies and brownie balls, he won’t touch any of it.
But he does love sugar cookies (and snickerdoodles…) – any and all sugar cookies. I’ve already shared my favorite cut out sugar cookies, easy sugar cookies bites, and just last week my favorite sugar cookie icing.
Today I’m sharing these delicious cream cheese sugar cookies because well you can never have too many sugar cookie recipes right?
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Cream cheese base – the cream cheese in these cookies makes them super creamy and soft (if creamy cookies is a thing).
- Great for cutting out – this super simple recipe is perfect for making cut out sugar cookies as well.
- Kid-friendly – not only do kids love these cookies, they also love helping to make the dough AND to cut out the cookies before they bake!
Ingredients
Ingredient notes
- Cream cheese – make sure the cream cheese is softened before you start making your cookie dough. I recommend taking it out of the fridge for about an hour before mixing or if you’re in a pinch, sometimes I’ll heat it up in the oven for just a minute or two until softened.
- Butter – I always recommend using high-quality butter when butter is such a key ingredient in a recipe like it is in these cookies. Also, make sure the butter is softened as well. Take it out at the same time you take out the cream cheese.
How to make cream cheese sugar cookies
Like I mentioned before, these cream cheese sugar cookies are super easy to make. Almost as easy as these orange sugar cookies!
1 – make the cookie dough
Using a hand or stand mixer, whip the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. This is why it’s important to make sure your butter is soft – it won’t mix as well if the butter is cold.
Next add sugar, salt, egg, and vanilla and mix well, then slowly add the flour and baking powder and mix until fully incorporated.
2 – Chill the cookie dough
Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
Or if you’d rather, you could just place the each half in a plastic zipper bag and place it in the refrigerator, the plastic wrap just tends to be a little less expensive.
3 – Roll Out and Bake the Cookies
Once the dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sprinkle your working surface and dough with a little flour (or powered sugar).
Working with one half at a time (leave the other half in the fridge), roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick using a rolling pin.
Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes into your dough. If needed, re-roll out dough until all dough is used. Try your best to place the cookie cutters as close to the edges as possible.
If the dough starts getting soft, place it back in the fridge to chill for a few minutes.
Place cut dough on prepared baking sheet, keeping the cookies at least an inch apart to allow them to spread slightly.
Bake cutout cookies at 375 for 8-9 minutes or until edges start to get slightly brown. Do not over bake.
Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving to a cooling rack.
Once the cookies are cooled, frost them with this sugar cookie icing or your favorite frosting. Decorate immediately after frosting if using the icing mentioned above as it dries quickly.
Let icing set for a few minutes before enjoying the cookies! If you’re planning to freeze these cookies, I recommend freezing before frosted.
These cookies are perfect for pretty much any occasion! I’ve made them for all sorts of holidays including Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and even just regular birthday parties!
Tips & Tricks
Work with half of the dough at a time so that the dough stays chilled and doesn’t get too soft.
Put the cookies in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes before baking if the dough gets soft while cutting them out.
Use a gallon size plastic bag to refrigerate the dough if you don’t have plastic wrap available. Plastic wrap is just a much cheaper option.
Enjoy cookies within five days or freeze using instructions in the FAQs section below.
Recipe FAQs
Can you use cream cheese instead of butter in cookies?
Cream cheese and butter are totally different so no, you cannot replace the butter in cookies with more cream cheese.
Can you freeze cream cheese sugar cookies?
This dough freezes great. You can either freeze the cookies after baked or use the instructions above to freeze the dough before baking. To freeze individual cookies, simply place cookies in an airtight container then place in the freezer. When you’re ready to eat, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw until they reach room temperature and enjoy.
Do baked cream cheese cookies need refrigeration?
You do not need to refrigerate these cookies since the amount of cream cheese in the cookies is fairly minimal.
More Easy Cookies
- Chocolate Rolo cookies – chocolate chip cookies with a Rolo stuffed in the middle. Pretty much amazing!
- Snickers cookies – if Rolo cookies weren’t enough, these cookies with mini Snickers inside are a great option for peanut butter lovers!
- Cherry cheesecake cookies – sugar cookies topped with cherry cheesecake filling and drizzled with a sweet glaze.
- Moon pie recipe – homemade moon pies that taste just like, if not better, than the store bought ones!
- Chocolate whoopie pies – two soft cookies sandwiched around a fluffy vanilla filling.
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Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 8 ounces cream cheese (softened)
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- holiday sprinkles
Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 3 TBS heavy whipping cream (whole milk can be substituted)
- 4 tsp light corn syrup
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 TBS water
- gel food coloring (optional)
- sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
Cookies
- Using hand or stand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese.1 cup unsalted butter, 8 ounces cream cheese
- Add sugar, salt, egg, and vanilla to butter/cream cheese mixture and mix well.1 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 egg, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Slowly add flour and baking powder and mix well.3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder
- Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap then refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly flour working surface and dough.
- Roll dough out to 1/4″ thickness then cut with a cookie cutters. Place cut dough on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes until the bottoms start to brown slightly. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.
Icing
- While cookies are cooling, make the icing by combining powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream, light corn syrup, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water and mix well. If needed, add 1 – 3 tablespoons more water until icing is desired consistency.3 cups powdered sugar, 3 TBS heavy whipping cream, 4 tsp light corn syrup, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 3-4 TBS water
- To color icing, use a toothpick to transfer food coloring to icing and mix well until desired color is achieved.gel food coloring
- Transfer icing into zippered bag and cut off one corner, then drizzle over cookies and garnish with sprinkles as desired.holiday sprinkles
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