Cream Cheese Cutout Cookies

This post may contain affiliate links, which are products that I recommend and if you purchase (no additional cost to you), I will earn a small percentage. Please read our disclosure policy here.

These Delicious Cream Cheese Cutout Cookies are not only beautiful for Christmas cookie trays, but a fun activity to do with the kids this Christmas season!

Ok, I'm going to level with you Moms & Dads - making Christmas cut out cookies with the kids is not for the faint of heart. You have to mental prepare yourself that it's just going to be messy and you'll be in the kitchen for a little while after wiping everything down, including the children. Any recipe where you have to chill, roll out dough, cut them out with cookie cutters, bake, cool, and then decorate is going to be way more involved than the typical "drop and bake" types of cookies. Don't say I didn't warn you ahead of time!

With that disclaimer out of the way - this is something you NEED to plan to do with the kiddos. Even those of you Grandparents who are reading right now - I'm telling you, it's a blast. When you just let go of the expectation that things need to stay clean, even for one afternoon in the kitchen, you allow yourself to just HAVE FUN with those adorable kids.
I can honestly say I loved every minute making these cookies with Silas and Wesley last week, and I really look forward to making them when Reuben is old enough, too. I will say, there are definitely tips I can give you to make it go MUCH more smoothly:

Plan to make the dough the night before and refrigerate - not only makes the dough easier to roll, but it cuts down the amount of dishes needing to be washed at once
Use store-bought decorations (I like to buy these at after Christmas sales and store them)
Splurge on a good rolling pin, large cookie sheets, and baking mats (explained below)
Have clean tins or plastic containers ready for storing (if they last that long!)

Having the right equipment to make awesome cookies, takes a lot of the work and stress out of the activity - I promise you! I have a nice wooden rolling pin, similar to this brand. I've had silicone/plastic rolling pins before, but you really want the flour to stick to the rolling pin and there's nothing like the wooden ones for this task!

I will say though, my absolute favorite kitchen item for baking cookies are these Amazon Basics Silicone Baking Mats! Yes, they operate exactly like the name brand baking mats, only cheaper - plus they fit my oversized Nordic Ware cookie sheets perfectly. I can cram a LOT of cookies on these sheets - and they bake perfectly and evenly. One of my favorite things about them is that if any of those decorator sugar crystals fall onto the baking mat and melt during baking, they literally brush right off. Not that I really bother, because I usually just stick them in the dishwasher! Seriously, put these on your Christmas list this year - you're welcome!! :)

Cookie time! #christmascookies #baking #kitchen #snowman #candycane
A photo posted by Kellene Miller (@mostlyhomemademom) on Dec 3, 2016 at 10:14am PST

If you're using colored sanding sugar or sprinkles, you'll want to decorate them before baking. Obviously if you're using icing, bake the cookies first and allow them to cool before decorating. If you're buying pre-made cookie icing, make sure it says somewhere on the package that it dries hard, like this set here by Wilton. That way they'll be stackable for storing and gift-giving.

yield: 2 - 3 dozen cookiesAuthor: Kelly Millerprint recipe

Cutout sugar cookies made with cream cheese in the dough, baked, and decorated according to various holidays and occasions.

prep time: 2 hour and 15 MINScook time: 7 MINStotal time: 2 hours and 22 mins

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling
various cookie cutters, cookie icings, and decorations

INSTRUCTIONS:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and cream cheese. Add in sugar, salt egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy.
Gradually add in flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Transfer dough to a zip-top bag or a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. Refrigerate 2 hours, or overnight.
Remove dough from refrigerator, open bag or unseal container lid, and allow to warm on counter until easily pliable - about an hour, but this depends on how warm your kitchen is at the time.
Divide the dough in half. Roll out half the dough on a well floured surface, using a well floured rolling pin, until about 1/8 inch thick - on the thicker side is better than too thin!
Cut out cookies using various cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheets (non stick baking mats work great) and decorate with sugar or sprinkles if desired. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 - 9 minutes, or until just slightly brown on the edges.
Tranfer to cooking racks and decorate with icing when completely cool.

http://mykitchenrecipe.com/2016/12/cream-cheese-cutout-cookies.html

Created using The Recipes Generator

I cannot stress to you enough how much fun my boys had making these cookies with me - they still talk about how much they enjoyed the time they spent with me and with each other. The cream cheese in these cookies give them such great shape that holds so well while baking! I've made cutout cookie recipes in the past that completely melted on the sheet while they baked - not cool! I stated this in the instructions above, but thicker cookies are definitely better than cookies that are too thin so don't worry about the rolling part so much. Just have fun and enjoy these delicious Christmas cookies!
Here are my product recommendations below through my affiliate link: