These Cutout Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies are a family holiday tradition at our house. The creamy batter makes spectacular sugar cookies for the holidays and can be used as a fun family project when baked and decorated for gift giving and sharing with friends and neighbors. Sprinkle with colorful sugar crystals prior to baking or decorate with your favorite frosting after they’ve cooled, for a sweet project kids of all ages are sure to enjoy.
These cream cheese sugar cookies are so special I had to include the recipe in my cookbook. It was my desire that they be in print for my children and their children to come and share them with your families as well. Imagine my surprise (and dismay) when I opened to the page on which they were featured and saw somehow there had been an omission of the sugar when the manuscript was edited for printing. Sugar cookies with no sugar will never do. So, while I hadn’t initially intended to share this cookie recipe here on my website, I wanted to so it would be available to everyone the way it’s meant to be made, with the sugar. So, Merry Christmas from my sugar-filled cookie kitchen to yours.
See Melissa’s Southern Cookbook here
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Cutout Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 cup butter softened
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp pure almond extract
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- Frosting sprinkles and seasonal pareils for decorating
Instructions
- Sift together the flour, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, cream cheese, vanilla and almond extract. Beat for 2 minutes until fluffy and light.
- Add the sugar. Beat for 2 minutes or until fully creamed together.
- Add the egg yolks one at a time beating well after each addition. Beat for 2 minutes on high. The creamed mixture should be fluffy and light yellow in color.
- Gradually add the flour and mix on low speed until combined. Divide the dough in half and shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or until firm.
- To bake preheat the oven to 375°F and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- On a floured surface, roll one disc of the chilled dough to 1/3-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes using floured cutters. Place at least 1 1/2-inch apart on the parchment lined cookie sheets.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden. Cool completely on a cooling rack.
- When the cookies have cooled frost and decorate as desired.
Notes
Melissa
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Terri says
Are these a soft or crisp cookie?
Melissa says
They’re a bit in the middle. They aren’t crunchy when you bite into them.
TidyMom says
Melissa these are GORGEOUS!! You have such a steady hand, when I try making snowflakes on cookies they never turn out this beautiful! Is there a trick to getting such straight lines? I’ve heard it’s best to be quick, but I’m afraid mine still come out uneven lol. As much as I love the look of cookies with royal icing, I just don’t have the patience for it.
Melissa says
Thanks Cheryl, it is tricky. Take the end of a knife and draw the lines through first, then trace the line with the royal icing. It really helps!
Donna Gonzalez says
Can these be made I’m advance and how long do they keep
Melissa says
Yes you can, they keep for up to a week after baking. The dough however, can be made a week in advance of baking, if that helps.
Lori says
Hi,
I know you responded already about how long these can be made ahead of time, but, can they be frozen? Have you done that, and how did they taste once you thawed them out?
THANK YOU!
Melissa says
You can freeze cookie dough but, I don’t freeze these cookies after baking.