Cream Cheese Cutouts With Royal Icing Recipes

CREAM CHEESE CUTOUTS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter, cream cheese, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour. Refrigerate, covered, 1-2 hours or until firm enough to roll., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets., Bake 7-8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on pans 1 minute. Remove to wire racks to cool completely., In a small bowl, beat confectioners' sugar, butter, vanilla and enough milk to reach desired consistency. If desired, add food coloring. Decorate cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

CREAM CHEESE CUTOUTS WITH ROYAL ICING

Steps:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until combined. Gradually add the flour and beat until a dough forms. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• On a floured surface, roll out the dough using a rolling pin to a 1/8 inch thickness. Cut the dough with cookie cutters dipped in flour. Place the cutouts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for approximately 7-8 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Cool on the pan for 1 minute and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the egg whites and vanilla until frothy. Gradually, add the sugar and mix on low speed until the sugar is incorporated and the icing is shiny. Turn the mixer to med-high and beat until the mixture forms stiff, shiny peaks, approximately 5-7 minutes.
• Stir in food coloring if desired.
• For immediate use, transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a tip and pipe onto the cookies. (Or if you're using a zip top bag, clip corner and pipe onto cookies.)
• Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

CREAM CHEESE CUT-OUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream margarine and cream cheese, then add the sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla, and flour last.
• I like to chill dough over night or at least several hours.
• Roll out chilled dough and cut in desired shapes with your favorite cookie cutters.
• Bake at 350° for 10 minutes.
• Ice and decorate.

DANIELLE'S CREAM CHEESE CUT-OUT COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar.
• Add the egg and vanilla, mix well.
• Switch beater hooks for dough hooks on your mixer.
• Stir baking power into flour then add to butter mixture. Beat well until flour is incorporate. Scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Take care not to over-mix.
• Divide dough into at least 4 balls and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in fridge for at least 2 hours. Can also be frozen. Allow to come to fridge temperature before rolling.
• I like to make these on the thick side so the tang of the cream cheese can really be tasted. I roll mine just over 1/4" thick. Cut out as many cookies as possible from the first "sheet" of dough. Gather the scraps and put them back into the plastic wrap. Reserve all scraps for rolling later after they chill again. Put your cookies on a cookie sheet. I have never had a problem using an ungreased sheet. Cookies will not spread so they can be placed very close together.
• OPTIONAL STEP: Put the cookie sheet with your raw cookies into the fridge for about 3 minutes. This keeps the edges very crisp and square. They will not soften and round in the oven.
• Heat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake first batch and set timer for 8 minutes. Check at this point and see if they still look shiny. If so, add 1 more minute. Should not take longer than 10 minutes.
• Let cookies cool and prepare icing. Mix icing ingredients in a small bowl with a spoon. Scrape the sides to incorporate all the sugar.
• Spread icing on cookies with an icing spatula or dip the tines of a serving fork into the icing and drizzle over the cookies. Color and add crunch with decorating sugars.