This easy Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe takes the classic sugar cookies and makes them even better. Soft, chewy, and a delicious flavor. The best part is that these cut-out cookies can be made any time of the year for any occasion.

The addition of cream cheese to the cookie dough creates a melt in your mouth soft cookie suitable for all seasons.

Use my easy recipe for making royal icing to decorate your cookies with store-bought canned icing. I love a good kitchen hack, don’t you!

This recipe makes about 3 to 5 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie-cutter.

Cut out Sugar cookies are good any time of the year and are a good reason to have a nice cookie cutter collection. Make this recipe for the Christmas cookie exchange party and enjoy all the compliments about the great flavor of these melt in your mouth cookies.

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Tools Used

• Medium bowl
• Large bowl
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment, like this Hamilton Beach
• Hand mixer (if you don’t have stand mixer, it will work)
• Large cookie sheet
• Parchment paper or baking mat
• Rolling pin, like this
• Cooling racks
• Christmas cookie cutters or Easter cookie cutters

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

My soft cream cheese sugar cookies use simple ingredients that are probably in your pantry or you can easily find them at the grocery store.

• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 (8 ounces) package regular cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1 egg, room temperature
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, I use Watkins Clear Vanilla
• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Step 1

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Step 2

In the large bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or using your hand-held electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula as you go.

Now add the granulated sugar and continue to beat until fluffy.

Step 3

Add the egg, both the almond and vanilla extract and beat again until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes.

Step 4

Now, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, about ½ cup at a time, mixing after each addition, just until all is combined. The dough will be sticky.

Step 5

Roll dough into a rectangle and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Baking the cookies

Step 6

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prepare a large cookie sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat.

I use multiple prepared baking sheets when making cookies so that when one pan comes out of the oven another one is ready to go in.

Step 7

Make a work surface for rolling out and cutting the cookies. I like to use these disposable counter covers which you can toss away after you are done for easy clean-up.

Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. For best results, I like to work with only a portion of the dough at a time, placing the remaining dough back into the refrigerator until ready to use.

Roll out the sugar cookie dough to about ½ inch thick. Cut with cookie cutters and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake cutout cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or just until the edges are set and the cookies are puffed.

You may need to adjust the bake time as you continue to bake more pans of cookies. Hot pans and hot ovens often mean less baking time.

Step 8

Allow the freshly baked cookies to cool completely on a wire rack. Decorate as desired.

I found these fun Christmas candy sprinkles at Walmart. Shop my affiliate link online.

Cookie Icing Ingredients

• Can of vanilla frosting, like this
• Christmas sprinkles, lots to choose from

Easy royal icing for cookies

All you need is a can of store-bought frosting for this quick icing trick.

Step 1

Open a can of frosting and remove the foil label completely. Place the plastic can in the microwave and heat at 15-second intervals, stirring between each until icing is melted. Vanilla frosting can be tinted with food coloring.

Step 2

Allow the icing to cool slightly before frosting the cookies.

Decorating sugar cookies

Allow the cookies to completely cool before decorating.

Spoon the icing onto the cooled cookie and carefully spread with a small spatula or use a piping bag to decorate your cookies.

While the icing is still wet, add any sprinkles, candies, or other edible decorations. The iced Christmas tree cookie is pretty with the green sugar sprinkles but when you add the candy lights, it becomes even more inviting.

Allow icing to dry completely before storing in an airtight container.

Store Cookies

These decorated cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. These cookies are best if eaten in the first three days. Trust me, they won’t last because they will be eaten quickly.

Cookie Decorating Tip

Make your own piping bag with a resealable plastic bag. Insert the bag into a large cup so there is a nice size opening for spooning the icing into. Once filled, twist the top closed and snip the end to create a small opening. You are all set.

More Cookie Recipes

Grinch Blossom Cookies sugar cookie recipe, similar to the classic peanut butter Hershey Blossom cookie

Best Rainbow Chip cookies, soft and chewy brown sugar recipe

Chocolate Caramel Pecan Bar Cookies, a great recipe for a food gift

Old Fashioned Tea Cake Christmas Cookies, worth the extra trouble

Christmas Magic Cookie Bars, another good food gift from the kitchen

The cookie cutters I used were 4 1/2 to 5 inches and yielded about three dozen cookies.

These Christmas sugar cookies were fun to make and decorate for our holiday treats. They are great for home or office parties and gifts from the kitchen.