Cranberry Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

September 26, 2012 By Leanne Vogel December 17, 2018

Is it too early to bring in the sugar cookie? I was a bit worried when I started planning this recipe, but Joy of Baking put my mind at ease,

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They are an American favorite and although they were once made primarily during the Christmas season, they are now a year round favorite.

Notice the year round piece there. FYI – It’s totally normal to bake a batch of sugar cookies in September.

As for the nanaimo bars I made in May, we’ll just let that one go, okay?

I can’t just bake a classic recipe, there always has to be an edge to it. Noodles in meatloaf for example. Weird right? You say that now until you try it. Thankfully, there are no noodles in these cookies but there is a bit of goat cream cheese!

Don’t let the ‘goat’ in the cream cheese weird you out. I swear, they’re good. I dropped off a couple of these cookies at the neighbors house (you know, to make new friends by bribing them with my baking) and when I said they were made with goat dairy, they were a little set back. The trick to encouraging people to try new things is to make them smell and look really, really yummy. Within moments, our neighbor and her children were all up in that cookie business. And, to their surprise, the whole goat cream cheese thing went over really well.

Baked in a cookie like this, you wont taste a major difference between goat dairy and cow dairy, but if there’s a lactose sensitivity in your home, everyone’s tummies will thank you for making the switch!

My tummy is a testament to this. Smile from side to side… just saying.

This recipe was developed for Happy Days Goat Dairy.

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Cranberry Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Author: Leanne Vogel

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 12 servings

Sweet and tender sugar cookies with wonderfully crisp edges, filled with Happy Days Goat Cheese Spread, cranberries and almonds.

Ingredients

Wet

¼ cup grape seed oil *see note
¼ cup Happy Days Plain Probiotic Goat Cheese Spread
½ cup brown sugar *see note
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Dry

½ cup almond flour
⅓ cup brown rice flour
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon tapioca flour/starch
1 tablespoon freshly ground flax seed
¾ teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
½ teaspoon gluten-free baking soda
¼ teaspoon sea salt

Add-ins

⅓ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup roughly chopped almonds

Cream cheese icing

¼ cup Happy Days Plain Probiotic Goat Cheese Spread
1 tablespoon Happy Days Whole Goat Milk
1 cup powdered sugar *see note
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicon baking mat. Set aside.
Cream oil, cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl.
Mix in egg and vanilla, set aside.
Sift all dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.
Add dried cranberries and chopped almonds.
Then, spoon mixture onto the prepared baking sheet one heaping tablespoon at a time. Be sure to leave at least 1.5-inches between each cookie to allow room to grow.
Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are golden. Remove from the oven, allow to sit for 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
While the cookies are cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing all frosting ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Add frosting to a piping bag and pipe over the cookies once their completely cooled.

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Notes

Coconut oil or other baking oils like butter can be used in place of grape seed oil. For the brown sugar, coconut sugar or demerara sugar can be used as a replacement if you’re watching your sugar intake and fructose rating of sugar. For a healthier powdered sugar, grind demerara or coconut sugar in your coffee grinder and use it as you would powdered white sugar.

Begin by mixing the oil, cream cheese and sugar together until it’s creamed.

Mix in egg and vanilla. Set aside.

Sift all dry ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.

Add dried cranberries and chopped almonds.

Then, spoon mixture onto the prepared baking sheet one heaping tablespoon at a time. Be sure to leave at least 1 tablespoon between each cookie to allow room to grow.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes, until the edges are beginning to brown. Remove from the oven, allow to sit for 1 minute, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

While the cookies are cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Add frosting to a piping bag and pipe the frosting over the cookies once their completely cooled.