Merry Christmas! I had one last Christmas cookie to share with you and I thought it would be appropriate to share it on Christmas day. Many of you will have fewer family members hanging out with you for the holidays and a new cookie might be something fun to make with the ones you have.
These are not just any ordinary sugar cookie. You don’t have to roll out these sugar cookies into shapes. Plus, traditional sugar cookies are crispy, but these sugar cookies are soft. It’s thanks to the little bit of cream cheese, that gives them that pillowy texture.
Aaaand, these sugar cookies are sparkly! What’s a little (or a lot) colored sugar on top of more sugar? 😉 I love the green and red to give them a Christmas vibe. These are the perfect cookie to leave out for Santa.
These “Christmas” cookies are technically not just for Christmas though. You can use other sugar colors instead to coordinate with your corporate event or a birthday party or 4th of July or Halloween or Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day or Tuesday or whatever you like. You get the idea and they make the fancy sugar in loads of colors so your imagination is the only limit.
Christmas Drop Sugar Cookies Recipe
(Makes about 32 cookies)
Note: This recipe requires that the cookie dough be chilled for 1 hour.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (equivalent to 360 grams)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter (equivalent to 2 sticks), room temperature
- 2 ounces cream cheese (equivalent to 56 grams), room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup colored sanding sugar (I used green and red.)
Directions:
- In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set these dry ingredients aside.
- In another large bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese together with a hand or stand mixer on high speed, until it’s smooth (about about 2 minutes).
- Add in the sugar and beat until it’s combined and creamy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat until it’s combined (about 1 minute). This is the bowl of wet ingredients.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. (Note that the dough will be thick.)
- Cover the dough and chill it in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- While the cookie dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare the cookie sheet by laying parchment paper or a silicon mat on it. I use AmazonBasics baking silicon mats.
- Pour the sanding sugar into a bowl, or separate bowls if you are using more than 1 color.
- Take about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. I use a medium Oxo cookie scoop to help portion each cookie consistently.
- Roll each ball of cookie in the sanding sugar and coat it evenly.
- Ever so slightly flatten the top of the cookie dough balls.
- Bake them in the preheated oven for 12 to 13 minutes or until very lightly browned on the edges. (These take 13 minutes in my oven.)
- Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer them to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Slightly adapted from: Sally’s Baking Addiction
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