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This is your go-to sugar cookie recipe for the holidays! These cream cheese sugar cookies are SO incredibly moist and soft, and are anything but cakey. The texture is buttery and tender with an irresistible flavor. They also hold their shape so well and are topped with a cream cheese buttercream that hardens once set, making it easy to stack and store for easy transport! This sugar cookie recipe really checks all the boxes.
The BEST Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Or just the BEST sugar cookies! I was constantly spotting sour cream sugar cookies in my grandma’s cookbooks, so I thought let’s take some notes from a gooey butter cookie and use cream cheese instead. The end result is the most incredible homemade sugar cookie you’ve ever had.
The magic is in the butter to cream cheese ratio. By using nearly equal amounts, you get the richness from the butter and the creamy texture from the cream cheese. Together, they create a sugar cookie that holds its shape so well and is easy to handle.
But to make these cookies EXTRA special, we’re adding an extra egg yolk and a touch of cream of tartar. The egg yolk furthers that richness even more, while the cream of tartar keeps everything nice and tender.
It creates a VERY thick and sticky dough that will seem very wrong, but once chilled it’s a dream to roll out. This dough can chill for just one hour or overnight, making it perfect for planning cookie decorating with your family!
Cut Out Sugar Cookie Baking Tips
Here’s everything you need to know in order to bake the absolute best cut out sugar cookies:
- Butter – Make sure to use basic unsalted butter. Skip the fancy European stuff! Otherwise your cookies could spread too much.
- Cream Cheese – However, I highly recommend using Philadelphia cream cheese for the best flavor and texture. Either way, make sure to use full fat cream cheese.
- Even Mixing – Scrape down the bowl as often as you can! The dough is really thick at the end so it’s hard to mix it together by hand. By scraping down the bowl throughout mixing, it will lessen the amount of work at the end.
- Shaping – Pat the dough into a rectangle about one inch thick. This will speed up the chilling process while also making it much easier to roll out once chilled.
- Rolling – Roll out onto a well-floured surface. I like to dust both sides of the dough with flour before rolling to further prevent any sticking. Also roll to 1/4 inch thick! We want thick cookies for that tender and rich center.
- Cutters – Use cookie cutters with minimal details. This can be hearts, stars, bells, mittens, snowmen, trees, gingerbread men…etc. Just nothing too ornate with lots of tiny corners!
- Frosting – These cookies are very soft, so I recommend frosting the cookies on a flat surface rather than holding the cookie in your hand to frost.
- Sprinkles – Immediately add sprinkles right when you’ve frosted one cookie. Don’t frost all of them and then go back and add sprinkles, otherwise they won’t stick because the frosting will have set by then!
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies FAQs:
Unfortunately not! I tried swapping the flour with a gluten free flour and these cookies turned out so gritty, even after an overnight chill. I’ll have to work on developing a whole separate gluten free sugar cookie recipe but once I do, I’ll be sure to link it here!
It can chill for at least one hour or overnight. So you can make it a day ahead and roll, cut, and decorate the next day!
You can use the icing recipe from my classic cut out sugar cookies!
Not for this one! The dough is very sticky so it’s impossible to work with unless it has chilled for 1 hour.
I use unsalted butter so I have better control over the salt content in my recipes, but if you’d like to use salted butter you can reduce the amount of added salt in this recipe by half.
Absolutely! I would add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to the dough.
You can freeze this dough whole, however I think it’s easiest to cut all the shapes and freeze those! Just chill the dough for an hour, cut out all the cookies, chill the cut cookie dough until firm, then place into a freezer bag and freeze. They can be baked from frozen, adding a couple extra minutes to the bake time. If freezing the entire slab of dough, I recommend transferring it to the refrigerator the night before you plan to use it. That way, it can soften a bit for easier rolling. The dough can last in the freezer for a few months.
For even more Christmas cookie recipes, check out my:
- Blossom Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
- Classic Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Peppermint Bark Cookies
- Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookie Bars
Make sure to tag me @butternutbakery on Instagram if you make these Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies. I love seeing my recipes come to life in YOUR kitchen! To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, the buttons above or below this post, or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!
Watch how to make this sugar cookie recipe!
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Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
This is the best sugar cookie recipe for Christmas! These cream cheese sugar cookies bake into a deliciously soft and buttery texture, but still hold their shape when baked. The dough only chills for one hour, or it can be prepped the day before and chill overnight. Spread some cream cheese buttercream on top for easy decorating. It dries firm, so these cookies can be stacked and stored – a must for a big batch of Christmas cookies!
- Prep Time 2 hours
- Cook Time 10 minutes
- Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield About 26 cookies
Ingredients
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 6 oz (170g) full fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 3 1/2 cups (450g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for dusting
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1/2 cup (112g) unsalted butter, room temp
- 2 oz full fat cream cheese, room temp
- 2 cups (220g) powdered sugar, spooned and leveled
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Gel food coloring (optional)
- Sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, cream cheese, and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Scrape down the bowl and mix in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until smooth.
- Scrape down the bowl and mix in the salt, baking powder, and cream of tartar until combined.
- Last, mix in the flour. When your mixer starts to struggle with the thick dough, remove from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to ensure the dough is well combined. It’s VERY thick and sticky, so this requires a little elbow grease!
- Dump the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap lightly dusted with flour.
- Coat your hands in flour and pat the dough out into a 1” thick rectangle. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- When ready, preheat the oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough out onto a floured surface to ¼” thick (we want nice and thick cookies).
- Cut out as many cookies as you can and place them about an inch apart on the baking sheet. With any leftover cut out cookies, store in the refrigerator.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes (9 was the sweet spot for me), or until they look dry on the surface but just barely done in the middle. In the meantime, you can re-roll the dough scraps, continuing to store any cut out cookies in the refrigerator until it’s time to bake them.
- Let the cookies rest on the pan for about a minute, then transfer to a cooling rack before baking the rest of the batch.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Mix in the powdered sugar one cup at a time, followed by the vanilla. It should be thick and smooth. Mix in a few drops of gel food coloring if desired.
- Spread the frosting on the cooled cookies and immediately top with sprinkles. If you wait too long, the sprinkles won’t stick so frost one cookie, add sprinkles, then move on to the next.
- Now they’re ready to enjoy!
Equipment
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- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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