It’s our family tradition this time of year to make at least one batch of sugar cookies.  Our favorites the last few years have been cream cheese sugar cookies, because they have such a creamy, rich taste, they’re not dry at all, like some sugar cookies can be.  I also wanted a recipe that used a whole vanilla bean, because I love vanilla beans, both for the pretty appearance they create, and the taste.  I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com, to create this one:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Madagascar vanilla extract
• 1 whole Madagascar vanilla bean
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions:

1. Combine the sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, vanilla extract and egg yolk in a large bowl. Beat until smooth. Gradually stir in the flour until well blended.
2. Slice open the vanilla bean, and scrape out the vanilla caviar.  Add it to the dough mixture, and beat until it’s mixed.  Look how pretty it looks with the black flecks of vanilla beans!
   
3. Chill the dough for 16-24 hours.  (Note: I attempted to pull the dough out of the fridge and roll it at approximately 12 hours, and it was not ready.  I tried again at about 17, and it worked well.  Longer seems to be better for this recipe.)
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/8″ thickness. Cut into desired shapes with your favorite cookie cutters.
6. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Leave cookies plain for frosting, or brush with slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with candy sprinkles or colored sugar.
7. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light and golden brown. Cool cookies completely before frosting.

Frosting:

I decided that cream cheese frosting would be the perfect pairing for my cream cheese sugar cookies.  I used this recipe, also from allrecipes.com.  They are excellent with the frosting, but they are also really good with no frosting at all.  Look how pretty they look with some frosting and some sugar crystals!

Anyone else like cream cheese sugar cookies, or have a favorite recipe?  Share here or on our Facebook page!

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