Description
Delicious and buttery Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies with a hint of orange zest, perfect for festive occasions. These cookies are piped into beautiful shapes, decorated with colored sugars and sprinkles, and baked to a tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 8 ounces unsalted butter softened (2 sticks)
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
To Decorate
- Colored sugars
- Sprinkles
- Gel food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure it's ready when your dough is prepared.
- Cream Butter, Cream Cheese, and Sugar: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the softened butter, cream cheese, and granulated sugar at medium speed until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides to blend everything evenly.
- Add Flavorings: Add the egg yolk, orange zest, vanilla extract, and kosher salt to the bowl, then mix again for about one minute. Scrape down the bowl sides to incorporate all ingredients.
- Incorporate Flour: Slowly add half of the all-purpose flour to the batter while mixing at a low speed to prevent flour dust. Add the remaining flour and mix just until incorporated. At this stage, if desired, add gel food coloring to the dough; you may mix it all in or divide into portions for multiple colors.
- Shape Cookies: Use a cookie press with your chosen shape to pipe the dough onto a baking sheet, spacing at least one inch apart to allow spreading. Alternatively, use a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Decorate each cookie with colored sugars or sprinkles as desired.
- Bake Cookies: Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes or until the cookies are set but not browned. If baking in batches, allow baking sheets to cool completely before piping the next batch to prevent excessive spreading.
- Cool Cookies: Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely before serving or storing.
Notes
- Ensure that the butter and cream cheese are fully softened for smooth mixing and better texture.
- Do not overmix once flour is added to keep cookies tender and prevent toughness.
- If you don’t have a cookie press, a pastry bag with a large star tip works well to shape the cookies.
- Allow baking sheets to cool between batches to avoid dough spreading excessively.
- You can experiment with gel food coloring to create multi-colored batches of cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 110 kcal
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 85 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 10 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 1.2 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
