I normally only make cookies at christmas time and I have been pretty happy with the NFSC. But I think I'd like to take it up a notch with a cookie that tastes a little better, but I still want it to perform like the NFSC. Just wondering if anyone has had success with cream cheese cookies (taste and holding shape?) I also saw a recipe for white chocolate cut out cookies, that sounds interesting too!
http://www.karenscookies.net/ I found it here.
This recipe is from Jeri Dry & Alix Engel's genius book Cookiemania.
My motto is if a little is good a lot is better 
But I have to reign myself in and measure the orange zest and the cinnamon on point because these cookies are magic as written. When I've gone overboard they lost that special chemistry.
Cream Cheese Butter Cookies
<combine and mix well in mixer>
1 cup butter
3 ounces cream cheese
<add the following and mix well>
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
<add and combine well>
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
<add the flour combine well>
2.5 cups flour sifted
1/4 inch thick--doesn't have to be chilled
350 degrees -- ungreased cookie sheet 12-15 minutes
Now I like to mix these very lightly after I add the flour because I like a very light textured tender cookie. If you mix it a little bit more at the end after you add the flour it will hold better as a cut out cookie-- an additional minute. And of course if you do go ahead and chill the cut outs before baking it holds better but this formula is brilliant. No icing is necessary.
that sounds delish! thanks! so they do make good cut outs then? (ie I don't like spreading)
They hold well. They keep their edge but I mean it's cream cheese and butter--it's a tender wonderfully tasting cookie-- it's not an exact replica of how nfsc handles.
I think I got all the typos out. Oooh--found one more --left out the salt! Now it's cool!
I started out with a CC recipe and loved it for many reasons...taste, texture, held shape well. However, I sell my cookies and I am very concerned about breakage. I found that the NFSC holds up a little better in transport (even just bagging and delivering - not to mention shipping).
No doubt they will be delicious and if you chill them well after cutting/before baking, you should have good success with holding shape.
Good luck and let us know how it goes for you!
I tried making the white chocolate sugar cookies from Karen's Cookies a couple of times; she indicates on her website that the dought is "a dream to work with", but I found it to be a nightmare! I don't know if I did something wrong, but I found the dough to be very dry & crumbly and hard to roll out. If I were to make them again, I would try reducing the flour to 1&1/2 cups and then add more at the end if needed.
The resulting cookie is also pretty dense - you'll probably want to roll out to less than 1/4 inch thickness if you're going to decorate them....
I know I've tried a couple of sugar cookie recipes with cream cheese before as well, but none of them stand out in my mind (I guess if I wasn't compelled to make them again, they probably weren't that great!)
I've tested all the rollout cookies on Karens website and they all performed well.
I remember the white choclate one was a little difficult to work with as it got colder, I think the chocolate hardens making it extremely stiff. This is one cookie you should roll out immediately after making.
I've made a brown sugar rollout that was pretty good. It might even be on this site, I did post it a year or two ago. I could always check to see if it's still my computer if you are interested.(it was from an old BH&G Christmas Cookie magazine)
I remember the Spice cookie on Karens being my favorite and very tasty. It reminded me of the windmill cookies from when I was little. I made them and then rolled in some sliced almonds. I rolled them very thin and they were great. I didn't decorate them.
thanks for the imput. Maybe I'll try the spice cookies.
I did try the cream cheese cookies posted earlier in this post. I don't think I baked them long enough, they were a little bit dense. I did really like the addition of the orange zest and cinnamon though. i decided to make the NFSC recipe this weekend for an order (I didn't have anymore time to mess around) but I added the orange zest and cinnamon to those. It turned out great!
I like the cream cheese cookies from the Country Kitchen web site http://www.countrykitchensa.com/whatshot/cookie_cutter_texture_sheets.aspx. It is listed on a card that comes with thier cookie cookie cutter sets and also on the website.
They aren't too sweet which I like because it balances the icing/fondant.
The recipe calls for one packege (3 oz) of cream cheese. The first time I made them I dumped in the whole 8 oz block and had to triple my batch. So that was a lesson in reading! Oops.
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