Cream cheese spritz cookies are a holiday classic! No Christmas cookie spread is complete without a batch of festive spritz cookies with holiday shapes and sprinkles. Here’s how to make them.
Preheat an oven to 325 F. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, cream cheese and sugar at a medium speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix again to make sure they are thoroughly combined.
Add the egg yolk, orange zest, vanilla, and salt to the bowl, then mix for another minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon orange zest, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Add half the flour to the batter, then mix together at a slow speed to avoid sending flour into the air. Add the remaining flour and mix again until just incorporated. At this point, you can add gel food coloring to color the dough; add it all to mixing bowl, or divide the dough into separate bowls if you'd like to use a few different colors.
2 ½ cup all-purpose flour, Colored sugars, sprinkles, gel food coloring
Using a cookie press with your desired shape, pipe the batter onto a sheet pan, making sure to leave at least an inch between to allow for any spread. Decorate with sugars or sprinkles, as desired. If you don’t have a cookie press, a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip can also be used.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are set but not yet starting to brown. If baking in batches, let the sheet pans cool completely before piping the next batch, as this will cause them to spread too much.
Let the cookies cool on the pans for 2 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to finish cooling.
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Notes
If you're having trouble piping the dough, let it sit out at room temperature a bit to soften.