These soft, chewy cookies flavored with all the best holiday spices bake up in no time and don’t require chilling or rolling.
Packed with sugar and spice, these sugar cookies are soft and chewy and delicious. The spiced cream cheese frosting adds even another layer of holiday cheer to them, which makes them a favorite at our house this time of the year.
These cookies are super easy to make. You don't need to chill the dough, and instead of rolling the cookies out, you just scoop them onto the baking sheets.
The cookies and the frosting are both spiced with all your favorite holiday spices - cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. And be sure to be generous with the frosting, you’ll have plenty.
(Scroll down for the printable recipe card.)
Holiday Spice Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 45 cookies.
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup confectioners sugar
3/4 cup neutral oil
2 eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons milk
3 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
For the spiced sugar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon cardamom
For the frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
Reserved Spiced Sugar
Pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and salt.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed about 2 minutes, until smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the granulated sugar and confectioners sugar.
With the mixer still running, add the oil, then the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated before adding the next. Then add the milk and vanilla.
Increase the mixer speed to medium and combine until smooth, scraping the bowl as needed. Decrease the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture, mixing just until the flour is incorporated.
Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop out golf ball-sized balls of dough, about 2 tablespoons apiece, spaced two inches apart on the cookie sheets.
Press the bottom of a drinking glass into the spiced sugar mixture, then flatten each ball to about 1/2” thick, dipping the bottom of the glass back into the sugar between each cookie.
Reserve the remaining spiced sugar for the frosting.
Bake each batch for about 12 minutes, until the bottoms of the cookies are slightly browned. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for several minutes, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely.
To Make the Spiced Sugar
Whisk the sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom for the spiced sugar in a shallow dish.
To Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until smooth, light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
Add the confectioners sugar, vanilla, reserved sugar mixture, and salt.
Beat on low speed until the confectioners sugar is incorporated, then increase the speed to high and beat until frosting is creamy and smooth.
Generously spread the frosting on the cooled cookies.
Store cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature for three days or in the refrigerator for up to a week.
