~ Melt-in-Your-Mouth Tangy Cream Cheese Cookies ~
While this is one of the easiest cookie recipes in my repertoire, it is also one of the most used cookie recipes in my repertoire. After the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature, start-to-finish, I can be done baking them in under an hour (including cleanup). The end result is a not-too-sweet, melt-in-your-mouth cookie that takes-the-edge-off any cravings for overly-indulgent sweets. For me, nibbling on one after breakfast in the morning, on the run in the middle of the day, or parked in front of the television in the evening, is a sweet spot during a busy day.
Eight ingredients = One melt-in-your-mouth batch of cookies:
1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature (very soft)
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature (very soft)
1 cup sugar
1 extra-large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon unbleached, all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting cookies (optional, but, I don't go there)
~Step 1. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, over medium-high speed of hand-held electric mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese. Lower mixer speed to medium and blend in the sugar, egg and vanilla, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a large rubber spatula while mixing -- this mixture will be silky smooth.
~Step 2. Lower mixer speed to low. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients . Beat until dry ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, maybe a minute, and again, while using the rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
~Step 3. Working one pan at a time while using a 1 3/4" ice-cream scoop as a measure, drop balls of dough, well apart onto 2, 17 1/2" x 12 1/2" baking pans that have been lined with parchment. When first pan is filled, place it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. While first pan is in the refrigerator, ready the second pan. Bake cookies, one-pan-at-a-time on center rack of 350° oven until the edges are just set and starting to turn golden, 12-13 minutes. Remove from oven and use a thin spatula to gently transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, dust with a very light coating of (optional ) Confectioners' sugar, if desired.
Take a taste. These WILL melt-in-your mouth:
Melt-in-Your-Mouth Tangy Cream Cheese Cookies: Recipe yields 20-22 cookies.
Special Equipment List: hand-held electric mixer; large rubber spatula; 2, 17 1 2/" x 12 1/2" baking pans; parchment paper; 1 3/4" ice-cream scoop; wire cooling rack; thin metal spatula
Cook's Note: If it's a drizzle of glaze you think you'd like on these cookies (which is so much better than a dusting of Confectioners' sugar), try my ~ Five-Minute Food-Processor Cream-Cheese Glaze ~. Pictured here on a cake, it is just as scrumptious on these cookies (just be sure to cut the recipe in half, as the full recipe makes too much for one batch of cookies).
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2020)
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