These cream cheese spritz cookies are the best spritz cookie recipe ever! They’re tender, full of flavor and so pretty when dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. A must have for any holiday celebration!
If you think classic spritz cookies are boring, think again! These cute little guys are the ultimate Christmas cookie that is sure to become a family favorite.
I’m going to be honest and tell you that for the longest time I thought spritz cookies were boring. Now that I’ve discovered these amazingly delicious cream cheese spritz cookies, I’m a total convert. They’re everything a good holiday cookie should be, and when you dip them in chocolate and sprinkles? They get even better.
WHAT IS A SPRITZ COOKIE?
The name spritz comes from a German word spritzen, which means to squirt. They are named this way because a soft butter cookie dough is pushed through a cookie press to make intricate designs.
How to make spritz cookies
This recipe is actually quite simple yet yields the most impressive results. The dough takes about 5 minutes to put together and contains the usual suspects – flour, butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, along with some cream cheese. There’s no chilling required here, the dough goes straight into a spritz cookie press and you’re ready to make some beautiful treats. I used a variety of cookie designs here, all the discs came with my press and it’s easy to just unscrew the bottom and change to a different disc as you go.
These cookies don’t spread much, so you can fit a bunch of them on one pan too. I divided my dough in half and colored part of it green. That’s totally optional but it sure does look pretty. The cookies bake for just 10 minutes, then after they cool you’re ready to start decorating.
WHAT IS A COOKIE PRESS?
A cookie press is an inexpensive kitchen device that consists of a cylinder with a plunger on one end. The cylinder is filled with cookie dough and decorative discs are attached to the front of the press so that when the cookie dough is extruded, it will come out in a unique and attractive design.
I dip my cream cheese spritz cookies in white and dark candy melts, then add festive holiday sprinkles. This is a great project for the kids, my girls had so much fun with it! The chocolate coating really makes these cookies special, it adds a lot of flavor but also makes them look really fancy. These cookies keep well at room temperature in a covered container for up to 3 days, and they freeze beautifully too.
No holiday celebration is complete without the classics, and these cream cheese spritz cookies are a requirement in my opinion! You won’t believe how good they taste and you’ll get tons of compliments on how beautiful they look.
MORE FESTIVE HOLIDAY RECIPES
Spritz Cookies Video
Cream Cheese Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- green food coloring optional
- 10 ounces white and/or dark chocolate candy melts
- assorted holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a non stick baking mat.
- Place the butter, cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Beat until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla, beat until combined.
- Add the flour and mix until just blended.
- Divide the dough in half. Color half the dough green if desired.
- Shape 1/4 of the dough into a log and place into the barrel of the cookie press.
- Spritz the cookies directly onto the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are set and light golden brown on the edges.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat the process with the remaining dough.
- After all cookies have cooled, place the dark and white candy melts into two bowls. Microwave one bowl at a time in 30 second increments until melted, stir until smooth.
- Dip the cookies halfway into the chocolate and decorate with sprinkles. If the dipping chocolate starts to harden, microwave for a few seconds to re-melt.
- Let dry completely, then serve, or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
This post was originally published on November 28, 2017 and was updated on November 15, 2018 with new content.
What do you adjust for a high altitudes. My cookies are coming out flat
Jayne
You can look here on ideas of what to adjust for high altitude: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/resources/high-altitude-baking
Do these freeze well?
Yes they do!
Two Questions!
Your cookies are beautiful and the green is a very deep, sharp green! What kind of food coloring did you use and how much do you recommend? My green always comes out so much lighter.
Can you freeze the dough and then thaw before baking?
This was Wilton gel coloring, shade is kelly green. Yes you can freeze the dough, just make sure you thaw it well so that it’s soft enough to go through the cookie press.
I am admitting failure with my cookie press. This was a favorite recipe when I was a kid so wanted to make them for our family gathering. I CANNOT for the life of me get the dough to release. So disappointed. Not with your recipe, but with my cookie press skills which apparently have left me sometime during the last 50 years.
So sorry to hear that! What brand of cookie press are you using?
I find that the cookies release MUCH better on a chilled cookie sheet.
This is recipe is similar to the one that my family has used and struggled with for years (more on that in a bit). It was from my mother’s 1960s-era Mirro cookie press recipe book. Your recipe adds an egg yolk, which I don’t remember ours having.
I was hoping that the egg would solve the issue we have with making these cookies. We have experimented over the years with several different techniques but always run into the same issue. In our recipe, we aren’t able to get them to press out after about 1/2 the dough is used. We doubled your recipe (which is what we did with ours as well) and with the extra egg we were down to the last two barrels full before the cookies wouldn’t adhere to the tray and created just a blob at the end of the press instead. So what’s the secret for getting them to press out all the way through the entire batch? We’ve tried chilling the dough (only partially successful) – got like 8 more cookies pressed. We always end up just making blob cookies at the end.
We just love this recipe so any tips would be appreciated! I still have my Mom’s old press, but have converted in recent years to the Pampered Chef version.
For me, it’s been more about the pressing technique than the actual dough itself. I do occasionally have cookies from this recipe that sometimes don’t come out of the press perfectly, but I just scrape them off the pan and put the dough back into the press to try again. For me, I’ve found that it helps to make sure that there are no air bubbles in the canister, and to press firmly, then the trick is to leave the press on the cookie sheet for an extra 30 seconds before you pull it away. If you pull away too quickly the cookie doesn’t always adhere and then you end up with a blob stuck to the press. I don’t chill the dough because a cold dough is firmer and actually more difficult to press. I hope this helps!
If you chill it overnight, what’s the best way to recover and help the dough stick to the pan?
You just need to let the dough sit covered at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes until it starts to soften!
I was having the same problem with my cookies not sticking to the sheet. I finally remembered that instead of pulling straight up after pressing out the dough, you tip the press toward you so the is not so much suction pressure. It is about technique not so much the kind of dough. Also do not chill the dough, it works better if you press and bake the cookies right after making the dough. Hope this helps and good luck!
Those are great tips, thanks!
I struggled for a long time too until someone told me to place the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes and it works great.
Marcato cookie press is the best but expensive. I wouldn’t do without it.
I need to make about 400 hundred cookies. Can I make all the dough one day and put it in the fridge and cook all the next day?
You can do that, but you’ll need to bring the dough to room temperature first so that it’s pliable enough to slide through the cookie press with ease. Hope that helps!
Thank you this will be the first time I will be using your recipe
Could I wrap in heart shape and put in frig for a while then cut and bake? I don’t have a cookie press.
Yes you can use cookie cutters or a piping bag to shape your cookies!
How did you get the trees such a rich dark shade of green please? They are so beautiful!
I used a gel food coloring, Wilton and Ateco make them. And I just kept adding until I got a color I liked. Try adding 5-6 drops, mix it together, then add 1-2 more drops at a time until you get your desired shade.
I have a Tye 1 diabetic grandson so we are always looking for treats with less carb count and this one fits the bill for sure..thanks so much for putting the nutrition facts on here it is so hard sometimes having to guess at the carbs to give him his insulin…this makes it so easy all the way around and I know they are going to love making these for our Christmas baking during their time off from school!
I hope he enjoys the cookies, thanks for writing in! Happy Holidays!
Can I make them 3 weeks before and freeze them?
Yes, I would recommend freezing them undecorated, then thaw at room temp and decorate with chocolate and sprinkles!
You recommend keeping cookies in an air tight container for up to 3 days. Can they keep longer? I would like to give them as Christmas gifts!
You could definitely go to 5 days, possibly even 7 🙂
These cookies are so bright and pretty for the holidays. I definitely will try to make them! The shapes are the cutest and look so much better than our usual drop cookies.
I can see why they would be so delicious. Always looking to make new holiday treats. I will have to try this out.
What a wonderful post! These look delish, I love christmas desserts–always tasty. Thanks for sharing.
These cookies look beautiful! I love how you decorated them!
These cookies look beautiful and delicious. The recipe looks rather simple too, I’ll give it a shot.
Excellent recipe that I’m eager to try especially with the cream cheese. I love these types of holiday cookies.
Wow, who new you could make these homemade and so neat. These cookies are a favorite of mine.
When you say sugar do you mean icing sugar or regular white granulated sugar ?
This recipe calls for regular white granulated sugar!
Could you use a sugar substitute?
I haven’t tried it that way but I think it would work fine!
I made as directed except opted for a piping bag as my cookie press is on the fritz. Delicious! Thanks for the recipe!