Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies
These Christmas Cookies are easy and melt in your mouth!
Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies are going to be your new favorite holiday cookie! They melt in your mouth and are so festive with their sprinkles.
Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies, you guys!! They are soooo good! I made them for the bake sale at Dean’s school and had a few leftover, people we literally fighting over them, they are that good!!
I have to make more this weekend because my family is dying for them!
These cookies are buttery and rich but are light and melt in your mouth thanks to the cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar, yum! This is one of my favorite christmas cookie recipes.
There is nothing I love more than baking during the holidays, I love getting all the sprinkles and icings, and different cookies and creating huge platters of cookies for our Christmas Eve dinner and of course for Santa!! Of all the cookies I make during the holidays these have to be my favorite!
They are so delicious!! I thought my husband was going to eat to the whole batch! They have become my grandma’s new favorite cookies and that is saying something especially since her name is Cookie lol.
I love them with just this simple glaze so you can really taste that buttery cream cheese flavor but they are so easy to flavor up a million different ways (I’ll share a few other holiday flavors for them soon!) Of course I have to dress them up with a few festive sprinkles! These cream cheese sprinkle cookies are going to look great on your holiday cookie tray.
So this holiday season make these super easy, super delicious cookies and serve them up on a big old holiday cookie platter and you will be the hit of any get together. These are also referred to as christmas cheesecake cookies.
These Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies are also the perfect gift for teachers, neighbors, friends, hostess gift, anyone would love to receive these delicious little cookies! Merry Christmas!
Can I skip the glaze?
Sure! You can just give them a sprinkle of powdered sugar after they bake instead of the glaze.
Can I make this cream cheese cookies recipe ahead of time?
You can make the dough and put it in the fridge the night before to save some time. They also stay fresh for a bit in an airtight container but they never last long around here anyways.
Can I use margarine instead of butter?
Please don’t! These cookies have an out of this world buttery flavor that can only come from real butter.
Can I skip the sprinkles?
What are you the Grinch?? Lol!! Of course you can skip the sprinkles, they will taste just as good without.
Can I add food coloring?
Sure! If you want to color the dough instead of adding sprinkles that would work great. Just add the food coloring in at the end and they should come beautifully colored. I do recommend using a gel food coloring or a higher quality coloring. You can even separate the batch into 3 portions and do one red, one green and leave one white, so festive!
FREEZER INSTRUCTIONS:
Want to get a head start on your holiday baking? You can make these ahead of time and keep them in the freezer until you are ready to set them out for Santa!
Just bake your cookies and glaze them and let them cool COMPLETELY! Then you can store them in an airtight container for up to 6 months. If stacking the cookies in the container place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper between the layers. Make sure that you remove them from their container to thaw so condensation does not form.
Ingredients for this cream cheese cookie recipe
- Unsalted butter – Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature for this recipe.
- Cream Cheese – Same with the cream cheese, make sure it is softened.
- Powdered Sugar – Using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar is what gives these cookies their delicate texture.
- Baking Powder – Just a bit to give them a little rise.
- Egg – Helps bind the cookies.
- Vanilla Extract – You could switch this out for peppermint extract or almond extract.
- Flour – I just used all-purpose flour for these cookies.
- Christmas sprinkles – Any sprinkles you like will work.
How to make these Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Line cookie sheets or baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Using an electric mixer cream butter and cream cheese in mixer bowl.
- Slowly add sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Beat in egg.
- Slowly add flour, baking powder, 2 tablespoons sprinkles and vanilla. Mix Well.
- Chill cream cheese cookie dough for at least 1 hour.
- Shape into 1 inch or so balls.
- Place on cookie sheet, 1½ inches apart.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, just until the edges are slightly golden, you want them almost under baked for the perfect texture.
- Cool for just a minute on cookie sheet before transferring to cooling racks or a wire rack.
- Mix your powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons water and spoon over cookies immediately adding sprinkles before the glaze hardens.
Want to gift these?
These cookies make the perfect holiday gift for teachers, friends, neighbors, anyone would love to receive a package of these. You can place a couple in holiday cellophane bags all tied off with a pretty ribbon, you can pile them into those cute festive Chinese takeout containers you can find in the Christmas wrapping section (I find mine at the Target Dollar Spot). Of course there is the traditional cookie tin which would hold a ton of these delicious cookies. Also for a fun DIY approach you can take and empty and clean Pringles can and wrap the outside in wrapping paper, fill it with cooled cookies and place the lid on and stick on a bow, voila you have the perfect present! These are also good cookies to ship just make sure to pack them well in an airtight container and you can send these as a yummy gift to anyone!
Products I used to make these delicious cookies!
Want more holiday cookies? Check out these!
Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies are going to be your new favorite holiday cookie! They melt in your mouth and are so festive with their sprinkles.
Christmas Cream Cheese Cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
Thank you for the recipe, they look wonderful! I will be making these as a treat for after our church’s Christmas Eve services. Blessings!
Thank you for stopping by! Hope you all enjoy! Merry Christmas :)
Can you freeze these? If so how. Thanks!
Just updated the post with freezing instructions, thanks for stopping by!
Can you use milk instead of water when making the icing?
You sure can!
You say to cream powdered sugar in the cream cheese and butter… shouldn’t that be granulated sugar? And the powered sugar is for the glaze?
The powdered sugar is for the cookies and the glaze, there is no granulated sugar in this recipe. The powdered sugar makes them melt in your mouth.
Do you use plain or self rising flour ?
Just plain old flour :)
Look delicious! Do u use plain or self rising flour ?
Just plain old flour :)
They look yummy. Planning on making them for Christmas.
Do you think these could be made with almond flour to make them gluten free?
I am not quite sure but you could always try and hopefully they come out good!
Just made these cookies. They were easy fun to make and delicious.
Yay!! I am so glad you liked them!
Can this dough be rolled, refrigerated and then sliced?
It’s a pretty sticky dough which makes them melt in your mouth so I don’t think they would roll very easily.
I’ve already made them onceans they were delicious! But I can I cut these into shapes with cookie cutters?
Yay! They are my favorite!! I do not think these would roll out and cut well since the dough is so delicate.
So every year my mother-in-law makes these cookies and she has one of those cookie shape gun things where you put the dough in the tube thing and then you just add the different shapes to the tip and it squeezes out the shapes onto the cookie tray so if you have one of those cookie gun things you can definitely make like shapes that way. Sorry I know you weren’t asking me but she’s the whole reason why I looked up this recipe is she and I don’t talk anymore and those are my favorite cookies and I wanted to know how to make them so I know that they do well in a cookie gun but I don’t know about the cookie cutters.
Can you use a flavoring for glaze like lemon or almond and how much. Or could you use it in the cookie instead of vanilla
You can use 1/2 teaspoon and then if you need it you can add a little more, some flavorings are not as strong as others so I would start with a half and then go from there.
Will glaze harden if you use milk instead of water?
It should!
Since they have cream cheese in the cookies, do they have to be refrigerated after cooking and before serving?
No, I do not refrigerate them and usually eat on them for a few days after baking.
Can you really taste the cream cheese in these. Like, do they taste cheesecake like? Thanks.
Not too much, the cream cheese just gives them their soft texture and richness
If i want to add the lemon flavor … where should i put ?better in the dough or in the glaze? And how much? Thanks
In the glaze would be perfect!
I made the cookies without the icing. They did not spread at all. I had to bake them 20 minutes before they got a little golden. My house was cold and the dough was cold from the frig. Do you think that is why they didn’t spread? The taste is very good. Just wanted to share my experience. Thanks for the recipe. Happy Holidays!
These are not a cookie that spreads out, they will pretty much stay the same shape as when you put them in the oven.