Sea Salt Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies with Pink Pitaya Yogurt Frosting
 
 
Author:
Serves: 18-24
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold
  • 4 oz full fat cream cheese
  • 1 cup white granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon other flavoured extract (you can use almond, cinnamon, lemon or anything you wish)
  • 2¾ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
  • ¼ cup cornstarch
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • FROSTING
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • ⅓ cup full fat plain yogurt or sour cream (just make sure it's full fat)
  • 2½ cups confectioners sugar
  • pinch of sea salt
  • optional - pink pitaya powder to make the ombre effect on the cookies (you can also use food colouring)
  • Garnish - sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Place the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-low speed until smooth - about a minute.
  3. Add the egg yolk, both extracts and mix on medium speed until combined - about 30 seconds.
  4. Add the flour, cornstarch, and sea salt.
  5. Mix on medium-low speed until a stiff dough forms - about on minute.
  6. Place the dough onto a piece of parchment paper. Take another piece of parchment and place it on top of the dough. Roll the dough to ¼-inch thick in between the parchment. This step makes for a very easy cleanup.
  7. Remove the top piece of parchment, and cut shapes with any shaped cookie cutter.I used two different sizes of heart shaped ones here.
  8. Peel the shapes from the bottom layer of parchment, and place on the prepared baking sheets. Roll scraps of dough again and repeat process.
  9. Bake for 12 to 16 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden brown on the bottoms.
  10. Cool completely, then frost.
  11. To make Pink Pitaya frosting:
  12. Place the butter, yogurt or sour cream, confectioners sugar, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl and whip on medium speed until smooth.
  13. To save time and clean up, I frosted a few cookies with the white first, then gradually added my pitaya powder to the frosting to deepen the colours until I reached the darkest pink one. I used the same bowl and didn't have to divide it.
Recipe by SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL EATING at https://simplybeautifuleating.com/2019/02/14/sea-salt-cream-cheese-sugar-cookies-with-pink-pitaya-yogurt-frosting/