A triple dose of cream cheese (mixed into the batter, in chunks in the dough and as a glaze on top) makes these pillowy cookies extra tangy. Freezing the cream cheese before stirring it into the dough makes it easier to cut into clean pieces and keeps the chunks from disintegrating when shaping the dough into balls.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 3 hr 25 min |
| Active: | 50 min |
| Yield: | 3 dozen cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 sticks (1 cup plus 6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- One 8-ounce package cream cheese, 6 ounces at room temperature, 2 ounces frozen
- 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring (see Cook’s Note)
- 2 tablespoons whole milk, plus more if needed
- Very finely grated lime zest or finely minced cranberries, for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Combine the butter, vanilla, 4 ounces of the room-temperature cream cheese and 1 teaspoon of the salt in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add 2 cups of the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and beat until smooth, then add the flour and beat on low until the dough just comes together. Remove the frozen cream cheese from the freezer and chop into 1/4-inch cubes. Add the cubes to the dough, quickly stirring with a rubber spatula to evenly incorporate them into the dough. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
- Using a 1-ounce ice cream scoop or 2 tablespoons, scoop 12 portions of dough, roll into balls and transfer to the prepared baking sheet, spacing them evenly apart. Lightly flour the bottom of a 1/2-cup measuring cup and use it to flatten each cookie into a disk about 1/2 inch thick, re-flouring the cup after each cookie.
- Bake, rotating the baking sheet halfway through, until the cookies look set but are still pale and barely brown on the bottom, 20 to 24 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 1 minute, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
- Meanwhile, combine the remaining 2 ounces room-temperature cream cheese, 2 cups sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture forms a thick paste. Add the milk and stir slowly until a thick glaze forms.
- When the cookies are cool, dip the entire surface of the top of each cookie in the glaze and lift up, letting the excess glaze drip off, then flip the cookie right-side up and onto the cooling rack. If the glaze is too thick, add another teaspoon of milk to loosen it. If using the cranberries or lime zest, sprinkle on top of the cookies while the glaze is still wet. Allow the glaze to set before serving, at least 10 minutes. Store the cookies in a single layer in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 36 servings |
| Calories | 174 |
| Total Fat | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Carbohydrates | 21 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 11 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Cholesterol | 30 mg |
| Sodium | 92 mg |
Reviews
I have not figured out why so many people say these are a lot of work. They seem pretty standard, just the extra step of preparing the glaze, but it’s nothing complicated. I was wondering if the dough could be rolled into a log and then simply sliced. That would be easier than rolling balls and flattening each.
Super yummy cookies! Easy to make. Make sure to read the entire recipe and instructions thoroughly first as the ingredients for the cookies and the icing are lumped together…says total 4 cups of sifted confectioners sugar but 2 are for the cookies and 2 are for the icing. Same with the salt and the cream cheese.
Mine baked in exactly 20 minutes. I ate one before I put on the icing and it wasn’t that good…a bit dry. But with the icing…super yummy. It’s a good balance and not just layers of super sweet.
I did put a few drops of almond extract into the icing for some flavor. I also put about 6 tablespoons of milk to get the consistency I wanted. I didn’t have lime and not everyone likes cranberry so I did some with holiday sanding sugar.
Overall nice recipe…definitely one to keep.
Mine baked in exactly 20 minutes. I ate one before I put on the icing and it wasn’t that good…a bit dry. But with the icing…super yummy. It’s a good balance and not just layers of super sweet.
I did put a few drops of almond extract into the icing for some flavor. I also put about 6 tablespoons of milk to get the consistency I wanted. I didn’t have lime and not everyone likes cranberry so I did some with holiday sanding sugar.
Overall nice recipe…definitely one to keep.
I made this cookie for our annual Christmas Cookie Contest and I won! I beat out some very yummy competition. Couple thoughts…do as the author suggests regarding flour and spoon it into measuring cup- do not scoop it. A friend of mine suggests using a scale to weigh the flour. After baking the cookie and before adding the glaze, I ate a cookie and thought it had too much flour. After the glaze was added, it was amazing! When preparing the glaze I used at least double the amount of whole milk. I suggest adding the milk before all of the powdered sugar has been added. I almost did not try the lime zest topping. So glad I did. It was amazing and our guest preferred it to the cranberry topping. These would also be an awesome Easter/spring cookies with lemon zest as their topping.
The only thing I can say about this is the directions must be followed exactly. Because there were so many steps somehow I forgot to save cream cheese for the glaze and ended up putting too much at the frozen stage. This is because I doubled the recipe. I haven’t tried it yet but hope they come out great ok! My suggestion make a single recipe as it can get confusing with so many steps AND doubling!
INCREDIBLE. Follow the recipe to a t (I weigh my flour and powdered sugar) and you will get some of the most delicious cookies you have ever tasted! Instead of cranberries or lime zest, I did a light dusting of freeze-dried raspberry powder which added just the right amount of tartness at the end. Everyone who tried them was raving for weeks!
Tasty
An interesting way of making a cookie. No use of the creaming method so I wonder how the texture is….. I’ll try it later.
Ok… but at first I tasted them while war. Not good need to be fully coole. Then use sweeter frosting. I think too much cream cheese made them blan. d
Really delicious, but a bit time intensive. I added a bit of rum flavor to the glaze and red and green color to marble the glaze.
These cookies are delicious! Easy to make. I made for a Christmas party and they were an instant hit. I used red food coloring dye my dough and I added 1 1/2 tsp of maple extract to the glaze and decorated in different holiday sprinkles. So pretty!