Cream Cheese Cookies
Cream Cheese Cookie Recipe – These fluffy, sweet, and tangy cookies are loaded with cream cheese and sprinkles or chocolate chips! They are easy to make and super fun to enjoy with kids or anyone who loves a delicious homemade cookie.
Why We Love This Cream Cheese Cookie Recipe
If you’re looking for a simple and unique cookie recipe, today’s Cream Cheese Cookies are just the thing!
These baked goodies are chewy, light, and fluffy with a delicate cream cheese tangy flavor. They have a slight crispy texture on the outside and practically melt in your mouth once you bite in. Truly, pure heaven in cookie form! Thankfully, it’s easy to whip up a large batch of a few dozen in well under an hour and keep them on hand in the fridge for whenever a sweet tooth craving hits.
You can make simple cream cheese cookies with sprinkles, as shown here, or cream cheese chocolate chip cookies as well!
Ingredients You Need
- Cream cheese – softened at room temperature
- Unsalted butter – softened at room temperature
- Sugar – granulated white sugar is best
- Eggs – room temperature
- Vanilla – use high-quality real vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour – or your favorite gluten-free baking alternative
- Salt – just a pinch to balance the sweetness
- Baking powder – for the most soft and fluffy cookies
- Sprinkles – or chocolate chips
Pro Tip: The most important step in making the cookie dough is to soften both the cream cheese and the butter. If the butter is firmer than the cream cheese, it won’t fully mix into the cream cheese to make a smooth batter. Set out the cream cheese and butter and allow them to come to room temperature so both are very soft.
How to Make Cream Cheese Cookies
Preheat the oven and line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the cream cheese, softened butter, and sugar in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on high speed for 3-5 minutes, until very light and fluffy.
Meanwhile, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate medium-size mixing bowl.
When the cream cheese mixture is light and fluffy, turn off the mixer. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula, turn the mixer on low speed, and beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
Slowly mix in the flour mixture. Once all the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth, turn off the mixer. Do not overmix the dough!
Place the sprinkles in a small bowl. Portion out the dough balls using a 1 ½-tablespoon cookie scoop. The dough will be sticky!
Gently drop each dough ball in the sprinkles. Then lift the dough ball out of the sprinkles and place it sprinkle-side-up on the baking sheet.
Repeat the dipping process and place the cookies about 1 ½ inches apart on the baking sheets.
Bake the cookies for approximately 9-11 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden brown… The centers might look slightly underbaked, but don’t leave them in the oven too long!
The cookies will continue to bake as they cool on the baking sheet. After a few minutes transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Get the Complete (Printable) Cream Cheese Cookies Recipe + Video Below. Enjoy!
How to Make Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
Feel free to swap sprinkles for chocolate chips for an even more decadent treat. You can even use half sprinkles and half chips!
The sweetness and sharp tang of cream cheese make these cookies great to pair with nearly any kind of candy chips. Try this recipe with full-size or mini flavored chips, like:
- Milk chocolate
- Semi-sweet chocolate
- Dark chocolate
- White chocolate
- Peanut butter
- Butterscotch
- Mint
Gently stir the chocolate chips in before forming the soft cookie dough balls. Or you can just sprinkle a few on top and gently push in before baking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Creaming the butter, sugar, and cream cheese together at the start of the recipe helps to make the cookies super soft. This mixture combines with eggs – which are a leavening agent – to create the fluffiest cookies you can imagine!
Flat cookies are usually the result of over-mixing the dough. You should run the mixer while adding the flour and turn it off as soon as the dough comes together.
Yes, it’s a good idea to store dairy-based treats in the fridge. Keep these cookies in an airtight container and store them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Sure you can! Let them cool completely before wrapping them individually in plastic wrap, or stack them with a piece of parchment paper between each cookie to keep them from sticking. Place the wrapped or stacked cookies in an airtight freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw on the counter at room temperature for 10-20 minutes.
Looking for More Cookie Recipes? Be Sure to Try:
- Cake Mix Cookies (4 Ingredients)
- Orange Cookies (Sugar Cookies with Orange Frosting)
- Soft Chocolate Coconut Cookies
- Soft Strawberry Cookies with Pistachios
- Cottage Cheese Cookie Dough
Cream Cheese Cookies Recipe + Video
Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/3 cup sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Set out several baking sheets in line them with parchment paper.
- Set out an electric mixer. Combine the cream cheese, softened butter, and sugar. Beat on high speed for 3-5 minutes until very light and fluffy.
- Meanwhile, set out a separate mixing bowl. Combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix well.
- Once the cream cheese mixture is light and fluffy, turn off the mixer. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula. Then turn the mixer on low speed and beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Slowly mix in the dry mixture. Once all the flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth, turn off the mixer. Do not over mix the dough.
- Place the sprinkles in a small bowl. Using a 1 ½-tablespoon cookie scoop, portion out a dough ball. Drop the dough ball in the sprinkles, then gently lift the dough ball out of the sprinkles and place it sprinkle-side-up on the baking sheet. Repeat, placing the cookies about 1 ½ inches apart on the baking sheets. The dough will be very sticky. Use the cookie scoop as needed to move the doughballs around.
- Bake the cookies for approximately 9-11 minutes, until the edges are just barely golden and the center looks slightly underbaked. Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking sheets so they continue to bake as they cool.
These are festive cookies! They’re easy to make and satisfying! Brought these to our church activities and they’re gone in minutes!
My teenager loves to make these cookies and we love to eat them too! A simple cookie recipe that is fun to make year round.
These cookies reminded me of the corner bakery, they were so fun and yummy to make.
Also these cookies needed to be flattened with a spatula halfway through baking, otherwise they would have remained a scooped ball
These are good! I used stevia sweetened sprinkles & made them using a small cookie scoop which gave me 59 still decently sized cookies. This brought the calories per cookie to 70 & the carbs to 12 😋