Lindleys Cream Cheese Cut Outs Recipes

CREAM CHEESE CUT-OUTS II

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir into the creamed mixture. Divide dough into two pieces, cover and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut in to desired shapes using cookie cutters and place the cookies at least 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 7 to 9 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are firm. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

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.