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Cream cheese sugar cookies are a perfectly soft, melt-in-your-mouth cutout cookie! They are easy to make and fun to decorate.
The cream cheese gives them a great flavor and they really hold their shape. These pillowy soft cookies will make you question why you’ve ever made any other type of sugar cookie. Try topping this beauties with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, or Royal Icing.
They’re So Soft!
We love a good sugar cookie at our house. They are so fun to make, and even more fun to eat. Cream cheese sugar cookies are soft, tender, and chewy with incredible flavor.
The kids will really enjoy cutting these to fun shapes as they really hold their form. We love to decorate cookies for all of the special occasions, and this recipe is a fave.
You can even make these cookies several days ahead. They stayed really fresh and soft stored in an airtight container. Just whip up some royal icing when you are ready to decorate!
How to Make Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
DOUGH. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, and cream cheese until well blended. Add the almond extract, vanilla extract, and egg yolk, and mix until combined. Add the flour and salt, and mix to form a soft dough.
SHAPE & REFRIGERATE. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.
PREP. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
ROLL & CUT. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes with cookie cutters, placing one inch apart on prepared baking sheets.
BAKE. Bake 8-10 minutes, until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely before frosting.
- Why chill the dough? There are some sugar cookie recipes that do not require chilling. However, due to the butter and cream cheese in this recipe it is a must. Chilling the dough allows all the flavors to meld together. Chilled dough dries out a little bit creating the perfect sugar cookie texture. Chilled dough will roll out easier and make cleaner cookie cutouts that will hold their shape better in the oven
Cookie Tips
Just a few things to keep in mind in making these sugar cookies with cream cheese:
- Allow the butter and cream cheese to soften a bit before mixing them. They will mix together much easier. Be careful that you do not let them soften too much otherwise the cookies will be too oily.
- Don’t over mix: This is especially important with sugar cookies since you will be further working the dough as you roll it out. When you add the dry ingredients, mix until it is just incorporated.
- Do not let sugar cookies brown in the oven. Pull them out just as they are setting, then allow them to cool on the baking pan. The heat from the pan will further cook them before they begin to cool off.
Favorite Frosting Recipes: Leave them plain or dress them up with some frosting! Here are a few of our favorites:
- Vanilla Buttercream
- Sugar Cookie Frosting
- Chocolate Buttercream
- Marshmallow Frosting
- Berry Buttercream
Making Ahead, Storing + Freezing
Ahead of time: Since this dough needs chilling you are already preparing the dough the day before. If you want to keep it in the fridge for longer, a tightly wrapped ball of dough can last for 4-5 days before baking it. To further extend storage you’ll want to wrap it a second time with foil and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Storage: Store sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 dyas. To help keep the cookies softer longer, place a piece of white bread into the container as well. If you are storing frosted sugar cookies, be sure that the frosting has set before you stack them. Also, use wax paper to separate layers when stacking.
Freezer: Unfrosted cookies hold up better than those with frosting, but both can be stored in the freezer. Wrap them individually, or separate layers with wax paper, and place them into a freezer safe storage container. Freeze for up to 3 months.
FOR More Sugar Cookie Recipes:
- 3 Ingredient Sugar Cookies
- Lemon Sugar Cookies
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Favorite Sugar Cookies
- No Roll Sugar Cookies
- Amish Sugar Cookies
More Collections: Sugar Cookie Recipes
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the sugar, butter, and cream cheese until well blended. Add the almond extract, vanilla extract, and egg yolk, and mix until combined. Add the flour and salt, and mix to form a soft dough. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick. Cut the dough into desired shapes with cookie cutters, placing one inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes, until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely before frosting.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I chilled my dough overnight, rolled them out, cut them and then baked them and they spread. So on the second batch I cut them out, froze them for 30 minutes and then baked and they spread again. What am I doing wrong? 🙁
I’m sorry to hear your cookies are spreading. There are so many different factors that can play into cookies spreading. Chilling the dough is definitely the right thing to do to prevent that. I’d also suggest making sure you are using either parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Using quality baking sheets also helps. Another tip is to make sure you are correctly measuring the flour and not over-mixing the dough. I know factors like oven temperatures, altitudes, temperatures of your kitchen, etc. can also play a role in cookies spreading. So it may continue to take a little trial and error. Best of luck!!
I’m excited to try these! Could I bake them in a mold? I have a cookie tray with heart shaped molds that I think would be cool, but I’m not sure how to adjust the recipe or if I would need to.
I haven’t tried baking them in molds, so I can’t say what adjustments would need to be made. Always start with the lowest time, then you can add time.
Best sugar cookie recipe ever!!
Awe, thank you for saying that!
These are fabulous!! Keep their shape,frost well& taste great!!!
Happy you think so 🙂 Thank you!
Super yummy and I think would be great with your flood frosting recipe.
Kid pleaser! I’ve made a lot of sugar cookies and this one is great for cutout designs. Good flavor and perfect to hold the layers of decor the kids add.
These are so soft and delicious!!!
Never did try it with cream cheese gonna definitely have to try this recipe
First sugar cookie recipe I’ve tried with cream cheese – they’re quite tasty and held their shape very well! Requires some planning due to the chill time, but well worth it. Make sure you make extra – we ate quite a few before getting around to frosting them!
This is my favorite sugar cookie recipe by far!