Roll Out Sugar Cookies

This roll out sugar cookie is the perfect sugar cookie. You will love baking them for the holidays, but if you love making decorated cookie, this will end up being your go-to recipe. It is unlike your typical roll out cookie because it is incredibly flavorful. The cookie is soft, tender, buttery with a delicate tang. The secret? Cream cheese. I love this cookie so much, it was featured in my cookbook Cookie School. 

• Thick, with crisp edges and soft centers that melt in your mouth
• Holds their shape perfectly for all cookie cutter and icing designs 
• Tender and flavorful as-is, but still the perfect canvas for adding in other flavors
• Freezes and stores beautifully baked or unbaked 

These are certainly easy sugar cookies that you will want to make and pass down through the generations. 

The ingredients for these cut-out cookies is very simple and needs only a few basic ingredients. You can find the full list of ingredients plus measurements in the recipe card below. 

• Flour - All purpose flour is the best for these cookies. I recommend sifting the flour first, or at least giving it a quick fluff before measuring it. 
• Cream cheese - When baking, you want to use full-fat brick cream cheese. It will give you the best flavor, and most importantly, the best texture. It is important that the cream cheese is fully softened in order for it to blend into the cookie dough without leaving pockets of cream cheese in the dough which would affect the final texture. 
• Vanilla - The choice in vanilla is important when it comes to an easy sugar cookie recipe because of how minimal the ingredients are. The vanilla has a chance to really shine through and create a big impact on how the cookies taste. It is one recipe where you can splurge on using vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste. As long as you are using a pure vanilla extract, however, you should be good. 
• Butter - Like the vanilla, the quality of the butter matters. Please use an unsalted butter. Store brand works, but if possible, splurge on a nicer brand. As always, we need room temperature butter. 

 Making the best sugar cookies is not a difficult process. Putting the dough together is very quick, all you need is patience to let the dough rest and allow the flavors to develop. 

1. Add your butter, cream cheese, sugars, and vanilla extract to a large bowl or your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add the egg and beat well until fully combined. You will need to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. 
3. Mix together the flour and remaining dry ingredients into a medium bowl and then add the flour mixture to the bowl. Stir gently to combine until there are no streaks of flour left. 
4. Place the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into thick disc or rectangle. Wrap well and store in the refrigerator to chill and develop flavors. I recommend a minimum of an hour of chill time, but overnight will give you better flavor development. 
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place on a lightly floured surface. Gently dust the top of the dough and your rolling pin with a sprinkling of flour (no more than a tablespoon of flour total should be used). Roll out the dough until it is about ¼- inch thick. 
6. Cut out cookies with your favorite cookie cutters and reroll the dough as needed. Store the cut cookies on baking sheets in the refrigerator or freezer while you preheat the oven. 
7. Preheat the oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 
8. Place the cookies about ½- inch apart and bake cookies until the edges are a light golden brown. The exact baking time will depend on your oven and cookie thickness, see note right below. It will also depend on if you prefer soft cookies, or crispy sugar cookies (which will need an additional 1 - 2 minutes in the oven and more time cooling on the baking sheet before transfering to a wire rack.)

⭐Note! Make baking easier by prepping and measuring out all your ingredients before you start! This includes letting your butter, cream cheese, and eggs come to room temperature. You can make thicker cookies for more stability for more intricate cookie cutters. The bake time may need to be longer. 

The most important way to ensure you get the best results is to make sure you are correctly measuring your ingredients, particularly the all-purpose flour. You should fluff up the flour and then spoon it into your measuring cup then sweep of the excess. If you want to make sure you get consistent results, you can convert the recipe to metric and use a kitchen scale.

It is important to use all room temperature ingredients because it helps everything to incorporate well together. You can quickly bring your eggs to room temperature by leaving them in very warm water for five minutes before cracking them. 

Don't overmix the dough when adding in the dry ingredients! You want to mix just until there are no streaks of flour. Mixing too much can develop the gluten in the all-purpose flour which will leave you with dry, tough cookies. 

You can use any kind of icing or frosting for decorating. 

For decorated Christmas cookies I like to make a quick royal icing using powdered sugar, meringue powder, a tiny pinch of salt, and water. This creates the best blank canvas for adding in any flavors like almond extract, vanilla extract, lemon zest, cinnamon, or anything else you may like. 

For soft sugar cookies that have thicker frosting, a simple vanilla frosting works best for adding in other flavors or food coloring. You can also try using other flavors like strawberry frosting or chocolate frosting. If you'd like to enhance the tanginess, a simple cream cheese frosting would be amazing in place of vanilla. 

If this is your first time making classic sugar cookies, I want to share some of my favorite tools you might like to make this even easier and a lot more fun and streamlined! 

• These are the exact baking sheets I use almost exclusively
• I've been using this rolling pin for years for all my roll out cookies, cinnamon rolls, and pie dough
• Liquid food coloring can affect the texture of whatever you add it to, so I prefer gel food coloring. This one is a little spendy, but worth every penny
• Piping bags with tips of various sizes and couplers that allow you to switch out colors with the same tip easily is a must. Getting a piping kit is a life saver
• There's so many cookie cutters to choose from. I prefer thick metal cutters to last you through the years 

The best way to switch things up is to add spices and extracts to the dough. These are some recommended variations to try. The exact amounts you need in your sugar cookie dough will depend on how strong you'd like the flavor. 

• Spices - Cinnamon, chai spice, pumpkin spice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom
• Zest - Lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit
• Herbs (dried) - Rosemary, lavender, basil, rose
• Extract - Vanilla, lemon, orange, raspberry, red velvet, peppermint (best when used alongside the vanilla and not on its own)

You can also replace a little flour (up to 4 tablespoons or ¼ cups of flour) with cocoa powder for chocolate sugar cookies. Use just 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder and red velvet extract or red food coloring to make red velvet sugar cookies. 

Storing your cut-out sugar cookies when they are baked or unbaked is incredibly easy. My guide to freezing cookie dough is great for any specific questions. 

You can store baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for at least a week. Longer if there is no icing. They can also be stored in the freezer in an airtight container for up to a month. 

Freezing the cookie dough is a very simple process. I recommend rolling out the dough until it is a thick sheet and wrapping it in plastic wrap before storing in an airtight container works the best because it allows you to roll out the dough more easily when you are ready. You can also freeze the dough after you've rolled it out and cut out your shapes. Simply place the cut out dough on a baking sheet and freeze for an hour before transferring to an airtight container, adding sheets of parchment paper between the layers of cookies.