Cream Cheese Christmas Cookies can be filled with jellies, jams, fruits, nuts or caramel... anything you can think of. Cut the dough into different shapes then, add your fixin's and bake into cookies. Dip them in chocolate or drizzled them with glaze.
You can make many different cookies out of this one flakey cream cheese cookie dough and your friends will think you have been baking cookies for a week! It is sure to be on of your favorite Christmas Recipes.
Fast and Easy Way to Make Christmas Cookies
This is my "super secret cookie multiplying technique" that I use every year to quickly make a tray of assorted, yummy cookies in no time. I shared it in a guest post for my friend, Deborah, the master mind behind the wildly popular blog called Taste and Tell. Head over to her blog for additional information on how to change my favorite Holiday Cream Cheese Cookie Dough into many different shapes and flavors.
In the mean time, check out my tips right here and the recipe at the bottom of this page.
Why You Will Love This Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie Recipe
The cream cheese in the cookie dough makes flakey, tender cookies that melt in your mouth... think Rugelach or Butter Cookies.
These cookies are so versatile! The delicate flavor goes as well with subtle cinnamon and nut flavors as it does with bold, tart jellies and jams.
You will only need one dough to get a plateful of assorted cookies.
Different Cookies from the Same Cream Cheese Christmas Cookie Dough
This Cream Cheese Cookie Dough makes endless variety of cookies. Here are a few ideas for cookies-
- Rugelach- this dough is perfect for rolling out like a pie crust. Spread with ground nuts and cinnamon then, cut into triangles and roll into crescents.
- Thumbprints- roll the dough into little balls then, press your thumb into the middle to make a "well." Fill the thumbprint with your favorite jam or jelly.
- Chocolate Blossoms- roll the dough into small balls, press a Hershey's Kiss in the middle.
- Salted Carmel Cookies- Shape the dough like thumprints but fill with this salted caramel recipe and sprinkle with sea salt.
- White Chocolate Sprinkles- Roll out the dough to ⅓ of an inch, cut into thin rectangles. Dip one end in white chocolate and sprinkle with sprinkles.
- Chocolate Dipped- roll out dough and cut into 2 inch circles, dip half in dark chocolate.
You can even roll out the dough to create jam filled heart cookies like these.
Serve these Cream Cheese Christmas Cookies with a mug of this Hot Chocolate Mix Recipe or place them on a cookie tray with other treats like Christmas Cookie Fudge for Santa.
Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Cookie Dough
- Cream Cheese- the first ingredient is cream cheese. Good ol' fashioned full fat cream cheese in a block, NOT "whipped" cream cheese. I prefer to use Philadelphia Cream Cheese but, you can use your favorite similar brand.
- Unsalted butter- Bakers prefer to use unsalted butter so that we can control the amount of salt. The butter is actually sweeter.
- Vanilla- The flavor of these cookies is very delicate and subtle so the quality and flavor will shine through. I actually use McCormick Pure Vanilla. I know, it is not a high end vanilla but, I think the flavor is as good or better than most of the "fancy" brands. Plus... no "cough syrup" flavor. You may use other flavors like almond or orange.
- Granulated Sugar -Regular granulated sugar that you most likely have already have. I use C&H brand sugar.
- All Purpose Flour - I use Gold Medal Flour but others like King Arthur Flour. I prefer to use bleached flour for these flakey cookies.
- Salt - this is a delicate flavored dough so I suggest fine table salt, it dissolves better.
Other Flavors and Ingredients to Create Different Cookies
- Pecans or macadamia nuts, finely chopped (or any nuts you choose)
- Candied orange peel or dried cranberries, finely chopped optional
- Orange marmalade or jam of your choice
- Seedless raspberry jam
- White chocolate or candy melts
- Semi Sweet Chocolate or dark chocolate. I don't recommend milk chocolate for dipping the cookies or drizzling it on the cookies because the milk chocolate melts too easily on
Let's Get Baking!
After the Thanksgiving dishes are finally done, "Baking Season" has officially begun! Cookie production started weeks ago at my house. I love home baked goodies around the house to send to the neighbors and friends around the holidays. Baking is a good way to thank them for all of the beautiful breads and fresh veggies from their gardens that they have shared with me throughout the year.
Let me tell you, getting anything (even a mini zucchini) from an Arizona garden is a lot of work. I like my plates of cookies pilled high with different varieties of flavors and toppings and to look like I have gone to as much trouble as my neighbors have.
If you head over to Taste and Tell blog, you can leave a comment for Deborah on the post and get to know her.
But! Don't forget to come back and check out all of the Christma baking recipes. We have fun stuff we have planned every December on Everyday Southwest.
I'll give you a hint—we are "counting down" for some really fun recipes!
Here are some other great recipes that would make great holiday gifts:
Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Scones by Everyday Southwest
Chocolate Covered Coconut and Almond "Joy to the World" Candy by Everyday Southwest
Candied Cinnamon Roasted Almonds by Barbara Bakes
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—posted by Sandy
Cream Cheese Cookies 4 Ways
Ingredients
- 2 8 ounce packages regular cream cheese room temperature
- 16 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla or any flavoring you wish
- 4 cups all purpose flour sifted
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup pecans or macadamia nuts, finely chopped (or any nuts you choose)
- ½ cup candied orange peel or dried cranberries, finely chopped optional
- ½ cup orange marmalade or jam of your choice
- ½ cup seedless raspberry jam
- 12 ounces white chocolate candy melts
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and the butter together until fluffy. Add the sugar beat another minute. Add the vanilla and mix well.
- Measure the flour by spooning it into a measuring cup and level off the top with the back of a butter knife. Sift the flour and add to the cream cheese mixture a little at a time while mixing on low speed.
- Divide the dough into 3 sections. Remove one third of the dough and form into a disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Add the citrus peel and macadamia nuts to the other two sections as desired. Shape those sections of dough into separate disks, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes.
- Roll out each disk on a lightly floured cutting board to about ¼ inch thick. Cut into shapes. Cut one disk into 1 ½ to 2 inch circles and one into 1 inch by 2 ½ inch rectangles. Shape the remaining disk into small 1 ½ inch balls and press your thumb into the middle of each ball to make “thumbprint” cookies
- Roll the sides of some of the thumbprints in chopped nuts. Spoon a tiny bit of jam or marmalade into the center of the thumbprint.
- Bake the different shapes on separate pans so that they will cook evenly.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes depending on the size or thickness of the cookies. Start checking the dough after 12 minutes. Remove when lightly brown and cool on wire racks.
- Melt the chocolate candy melts in separate bowls.
- Dip the circle cookies into the dark chocolate and the rectangles into the white chocolate.
- Place the remaining chocolates into separate plastic zip bags and place a tiny whole in one corner of each bag. Use the chocolate in the bags to drizzle over the thumbprint cookies. Let the chocolate “set up” then arrange on plates to give as gifts or set out for your family.
Stephanie Chavez
Hey Donna! Four different cookies with one cream cheese dough recipe?! Awesome! So I finally got a chance to stop by your two blogs. They are both beautiful blogs that I will definitely be coming back to. It was wonderful meeting you at BlogHer Pro, and thank you for befriending me so kindly. As a newbie to Blogging conferences it was a little intimidating for me, but after meeting such nice people such as yourself and hearing their stories, I felt a little better. Glad to have met you hopefully we'll see each other again sometime :).