Vanilla Sugar Cookies {Soft & Chewy, with Cream Cheese}

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.

By the way, if you want to make matcha-flavored sugar cookies that are a gorgeous green color, use matcha 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.

These Sugar Cookies are a Building Blocks Recipe

Building block recipes are tried-and-true recipes that I consider foundational to great home baking. They are the kind of recipes I come back to over and over again, sometimes baking them as is, but often using them as a jumping off point to create something new. > Scroll through all Building Block recipes.

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!