Recipe: Cream Cheese Cookies

Cream Cheese Cookies

Yield: About 3 to 4 dozen

If you didn't know that there was cream cheese in these cookies, you'd think they were very good, very rich butter cookies. The baked cookies and the raw dough freeze well.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 ounces (1/2 large package) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Place the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle and mix until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg yolk and vanilla, and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the flour and salt, and mix until everything is well incorporated.

To form the cookies, break off small pieces and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet or one lined with parchment paper and flatten each ball into a flat disk using a wet water glass or your hand. Alternatively, these can be rolled: Chill the dough until firm, at least 2 hours, roll the dough 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick, and cut with any shape cookie cutter. Carefully transfer to a baking sheet with a spatula.

Transfer to the oven and bake until golden brown, about 14 to 16 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes and then remove to a rack. Cool the cookie sheet between batches.

Buy the Book!

The Bake Sale Cookbook:
Quintessential American Desserts
By Sally Sampson
Fireside Books/A Simon & Schuster, May 2000
Paperback, $15.00
ISBN: 0-684-86229-8
Recipe reprinted by permission.