Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies May be the Best Christmas Cookies Ever [RECIPE]

'Tis the season to be jolly --and for baking yummy treats. I recently took advantage of a day off to do some baking and try a brand new recipe. What I discovered is that these cream cheese sugar cookies may be the best Christmas cookies ever.

(Zane Mathews)

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at the notion of putting cream cheese in sugar cookies. It just seems wrong. But, I did it, and the results were remarkable. They were so good, I'm doing another batch before Christmas. Here's the recipe from allrecipes.com.

CREAM CHEESE SUGAR COOKIES:
What you'll need:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
3 oz. of cream cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Blend together sugar, margarine, cream cheese, salt, almond extract, vanilla extract, and egg yolk. Mix in flour until well blended.

(Zane Mathews)

Roll dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for two hours.

Roll out dough to about 3/8" thickness
Cut out cookies with a cookie cutter or a glass dipped in flour (I used a drinking glass)

(Zane Mathews)

Place cookies one inch apart on an un-greased cookie sheet.

(Zane Mathews)

Preheat oven to 375
Bake 7-10 minutes ( I baked them for 7 minutes and they turned out perfect!)

FROSTING
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract (I love the almond flavor and actually added more)
2 TB water
Food coloring of choice (I forgot to get some, so I ended up with white frosting)

After cookies cool, use a spoon to pour some glaze on each cookie. I think sugar cookies are best if they aren't slathered with frosting. My suggestion is to put a 50 cent piece size serving - or slightly smaller in the middle of the cookie. Too much frosting will completely cover up the wonderful taste and texture of the cookies, so don't over-do it with the glaze.

(Zane Mathews)