Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

I have loved holiday parties since I can remember. As a child, a friend of my mom's hosted an annual holiday party and she had the BEST iced sugar cookies! She purchased them from a bakery so the recipe was not available to me, but I remember hoping that one day I would find a recipe just as tasty!

Fast forward to my senior year of college and the first Christmas Party my husband and I hosted.

Since I had my own kitchen and my mom let me borrow lots of her baking supplies I set out to make dozens of yummy desserts. In my search for a sugar cookie recipe I came across the one I am sharing with you today. It is not necessarily magical, but it is yummy. It is made with cream cheese and is not too sugary. Plus, I often add a teaspoon of almond extract to add some depth to the flavor. One of the reasons I love this recipe is that it makes awesome cut-out cookies and goes great with the sweetness of royal icing (the very icing that I have dreamed of since a child)!


CREAM CHEESE SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
2 cups flour

Directions
Combine all ingredients, except flour, in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat until combined and fluffy. Next, gradually add four until combined. Divide batter into 3 disks and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Then, remove one disk at a time and on a floured surface, roll it out and cut shapes. Put shapes directly onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Chill cookies on sheet for 10 minutes. Finally, bake at 375 degrees for 6-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 3 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Cookies need to completely cool before adding frosting.

This recipe will yield about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the shape and size of cookie cutter. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for 1 week in the pantry, or 3 months in the freezer.

This post was originally published in 2010 on my Flour Girl blog.