Muscovado Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

These Muscovado Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies are adapted from King Arthur Baking’s popular Sugar Cookies. They combine the scrumptiousness of King Arthur Baking’s Sugar Cookies with their crispy crust and soft and chewy inner crumb, and the marvellously complex caramel flavour notes imparted by muscovado sugars. I reduced the sugar content and substituted the granulated sugar with a 3:1 mixture of light and dark muscovado sugars. I included vanilla extract but omitted the almond extract. I included the cream cheese to ensure the awesome soft and chewy texture of these sugar cookies. After making the dough, I refrigerated it for an hour. As for the sugar used to roll the cookies prior to baking, I substituted the granulated sugar with raw sugar.

Instead of tablespoon-sized cookie dough balls, I scooped larger-sized portions, using a medium ice cream scoop.

Muscovado Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Makes about 22 cookies

Ingredients

420 g all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

227 g unsalted butter, softened

150 g light muscovado

50 g dark muscovado

57 g cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature

100 g raw sugar

Method

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the muscovado sugars, salt, vanilla extract, cream cheese, and butter. Cream the mixture until fluffy.

Add the egg. Mix well. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Add the flour mixture and mix gently until well-combined.

Refrigerate the dough for about one hour.

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a shallow bowl, add 100 g of raw sugar.

Using a medium ice cream scoop, scoop out dough balls. Place each dough ball in the bowl containing the raw sugar and roll each ball in the sugar so that it is well-coated. Place the sugar-coated cookie balls on the prepared baking sheets, two inches apart. Flatten each dough ball to an 8-mm-thickness with the bottom of a measuring cup.

Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking.

Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes. Then, transfer the cookies onto a rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.