Soft, Chewy Vanilla Sugar Cookies {with Cream Cheese}

The BEST Soft & Chewy Vanilla Sugar Cookies

These buttery little sugar cookies are soft on the inside, crispy on the outside, bursting with vanilla and rolled in flavored sugar or sprinkles.

Sugar cookies have been around since pretty much forever. (Well, at least since humans started cultivating sugar, which the internet tells me was sometime after the 1st century.) But they most likely made their way to North America via German settlers in the 17th century along with other fabulous creations like Black Forest Cake, New York Style Crumb Cake and Sticky Buns.

As is usually the case with recipes that have been around the block a few (thousand) times, there are many, many different kinds of sugar cookies. It’s very likely that the kind of cookie that springs to mind when YOU hear “sugar cookie” is different from what I think of. Which makes me think that the name “sugar cookie” has almost lost its usefulness since the point of language is to try and communicate what we actually mean. 

There are thick and caky sugar cookies, frosted sugar cookies, crumbly shortbread sugar cookies, brown sugar and brown butter sugar cookies, thin and crispy sugar cookies, and soft and chewy sugar cookies {like these}.

If I’m being 100% honesty, I pretty much like them all. BUT, these buttery little gems are probably my favorite. They have a slightly crispy exterior while managing to remain soft and chewy on the inside. Most importantly, they are bursting with the flavors of butter and vanilla. 

The secret to soft and chewy sugar cookies

If you happen to be in the mood for soft, tender, chewy sugar cookies (and who isn’t?), you’ll need two things:

1. Cream cheese and
2. Melted butter

Oh cream cheese, how I love you. You make so many things so much better. Adding just 4 ounces of cream cheese to this sugar cookie dough creates cookies that are so rich and creamy they practically melt in your mouth. 

If this isn’t your first cookie rodeo, you’ve probably made plenty of cookies that begin by creaming softened butter with sugar.  Beating softened butter with sugar allows you to incorporated a lot of air into the dough. In many cases, this is exactly what you want. But, for these cookies, I wanted a dense and chewy texture, and you get that by using melted butter.

Roll sugar cookies in flavored sugar or sprinkles.

THIS is where making simple little sugar cookies gets all fun and creative. Because, sure. You can roll your sugar cookies in plain sugar (or nothing at all). OR, you can roll them in flavored sugar, colored sugar, or sprinkles.

I might have gotten a little carried away with all the possibilities. 

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Cinnamon sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with a couple teaspoons of ground cinnamon)
• Cardamom sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with 1-2 teaspoons of ground cardamom)
• Black pepper sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons ground black pepper. Soooo good. I’m serious. Try it. You’ll see.)
• Blueberry sugar. Here’s how this happened: I made a batch of blueberry pancakes this past weekend, for which I tossed some blueberries around in a bowl of sugar. Afterwards, I was left with a bowl of blueberry flavored sugar. So, I thought… why not roll some sugar cookies around in it? It’s delicious and has me thinking of how I might do the same thing with raspberries and possibly strawberries.
• Colored sanding sugar and sprinkles. For the cookies pictured here, I used CK Pink Sanding Sugar and a couple of pink and purple mixes from Fancy Sprinkles.

I like to make them small (and then eat 10).

There’s something endearing about small little two-bite cookies. I mean, they’re cuter, as small things tend to be. But, I’m also kind of in love with things that come with built in portion control. When you just want a bite or two of something sweet, one little sugar cookie will do the trick.

When you go back for seconds, thirds, fourths, and tenths… you can at least tell yourself that they were small. Like, super duper, hardly-anything-to-them, small. 

These have a way of disappearing at an alarmingly fast rate at my house.

I once made 3 dozen because we were watching three of our nieces and nephews (ages are 5, 4 and 2) for a few hours and every little kid loves cookies. I told them they could have as many as they wanted and when they went home there were exactly zero left over. (I am not above bribing kids to love me with cookies.) Bake a batch to share and I think you’ll have a similar experience.

More popular Cookie Recipes:

• Cherry Shortbread Crumble Bars
• Add Anything Cookies {One Dough, Endless Possibilities} 
• Skillet Cookie with Chocolate Chips and Oatmeal
• Pecan Sand Tarts 
• Frosted Brown Butter Citrus Sugar Cookies
• Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• New York Black and White Cookies
• Perfectly Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Peach Almond Thumbprint Cookies
  
   

If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.

Happy baking!

Soft and Chewy Vanilla Sugar Cookies

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★★★★★

5 from 3 reviews

• Author: Rebecca Blackwell
• Prep Time: 60 minutes (includes 30 minutes in the refrigerator
• Cook Time: 9 minutes per sheet of cookies
• Total Time: 2 hours
• Yield: 120 small cookies

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Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups granulated sugar (plus more for rolling – *see note)
• 12 tbsp butter, melted
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract OR almond extract

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Instructions

1. In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the sugar, melted butter, vegetable oil and softened cream cheese on high for 60 seconds, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl a time or two.
3. In a small bowl or large measuring cup, whisk the eggs, milk, vanilla, and lemon or almond extract. Add to the dough and beat for 30 seconds longer, until well combined.
4. Swap the whisk attachment for the paddle attachment on your mixer and add the dry ingredients, mixing on low just until it forms a moist dough. (Or, stir by hand with a wooden spoon.)
5. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat baking mat.
7. Roll 30 teaspoon-size balls of dough in your palms, then roll each little ball of dough in sugar or sprinkles (see the ideas listed above and below this recipe for flavoring the sugar or using sprinkles or colored sugar), place on the baking sheet and flatten slightly.
8. Bake for 9 minutes. The trick here is to take them out of the oven when they are just slightly underdone. They should look mostly set, especially around the edges, but the centers will look a bit underdone.
9. Cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Roll sugar cookies in plain granulated sugar, or:

• Cinnamon sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with a couple teaspoons of ground cinnamon)
• Cardamom sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with 1-2 teaspoons of ground cardamom)
• Black pepper sugar (1 cup granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons ground black pepper. Soooo good. I’m serious. Try it. You’ll see.)
• Colored sanding sugar and sprinkles. For the cookies pictured here, I used CK Pink Sanding Sugar and a couple of pink and purple mixes from Fancy Sprinkles.
• Blueberry sugar. If you find yourself with some leftover blueberry flavored sugar after tossing blueberries around in granulated sugar to make blueberry pancakes, these cookies are the perfect way to use it up!

Keywords: cookies, sugar cookies, easy cookie recipe

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