LUCKY CHARMS SUGAR COOKIES

Lucky Charms Sugar Cookies are soft, sweet and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! Absolutely perfect cream cheese sugar cookie recipe frosted with a simple buttercream frosting and topped with Lucky Charms cereal.

I wanted to make a festive treat for St. Patrick’s Day, but I was really craving my favorite sugar cookies, so I decided to use that recipe and make it a little more festive! These cream cheese sugar cookies are so soft and moist and absolutely perfect in taste and consistency. I love the buttercream frosting on top and adding a few Lucky Charms on top is a really fast and easy way to make these fit the holiday!

I’ve tried a lot of sugar cookie recipes, and many of them have been really good. I recently tried this one, and I don’t think I’ll ever use any of my other recipes again. You can roll the dough out and cut into shapes or just make balls and flatten them a bit before baking if you just want circle cookies.

WHAT ARE CREAM CHEESE SUGAR COOKIES?

Cream cheese is the “secret” ingredient in these delicious cookies. The cream cheese not only adds a unique flavor to the cookie, but helps to keep the cookies soft and the consistency just about as perfect as you can hope for in a sugar cookie.

INGREDIENTS IN LUCKY CHARMS SUGAR COOKIES

Butter: I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer. No margarine! Make sure the butter is softened, but not melted before adding to the recipe.

Sugar: Can’t leave this one out – kind of an important ingredient in sugar cookies!

Cream cheese: This also needs to be softened to room temperature for best results. You can use regular cream cheese or a low-fat or non-fat alternative, but regular cream cheese is ideal for the best consistency.

Egg: We only need 1 egg, but it helps to bind the dough together so that the cookies cook properly and don’t crumble.

Vanilla and almond extract: I suggest using a good quality vanilla extract or a Vanilla Bean Paste. You can leave the almond extract out if you have allergies or don’t like the flavor, but I think it takes these cookies to the next level in taste!

Flour: I usually use all purpose flour, but you can use bread flour, or even pastry flour in this recipe.

Baking powder: Leavening agent in the cookies. Make sure your baking powder isn’t old or expired for best results.

Frosting Ingredients

Powdered sugar: Gives us that thick frosting texture packed with sweetness and smooth creamy results. Yum!

Butter: Again, I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer. No margarine!

Almond extract: Again, I love the almond extract in these cookies, but you can use vanilla instead if you’d like. Either way is delicious.

Milk: You can use almond milk, coconut milk or cashew milk in place of cow’s milk. You can make the frosting a little thicker or thinner based on how much milk you add.

Food coloring: If you want to make these festive for St. Patrick’s Day, you will need a few drops of green food coloring. For a more intense color, use a gel or paste food coloring.

Lucky Charms: Can’t leave these out! You’ll just need 1-2 cups of Lucky Charms cereal – depending on how much you want to sprinkle on the top of each cookie. I usually pick out some extra marshmallows when I make these so that there are more marshmallows than just the plain cereal.

HOW TO MAKE LUCKY CHARMS SUGAR COOKIES

Preheat oven to 375°.

Mix sugar, butter, cream cheese together for about 2-3 minutes.

Add egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix for another 1-2 minutes. Add the flour and baking powder and mix just until mixed in and smooth.

Chill for at least 2 hours. Roll out on floured surface to about 1/4” thick and cut out with cookie cutters. (If you prefer to just make circle cookies, you can scoop out tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Place on the cookie sheet and use the bottom of a greased measuring cup or glass to flatten the ball to a 1/4″ thickness.)

Bake for 8-10 minutes…just until barely turning golden on edges. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, mix all of the frosting ingredients together with a mixer until smooth. Spread onto completely cooled cookies. Sprinkle the Lucky Charms cereal on top of the frosting before the frosting sets.

TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST SUGAR COOKIES

• Sugar cookie dough is sticky, but once it’s sufficiently chilled, it’s much more workable. Resist the urge to add more flour to the dough before chilling! If you add too much flour, the ratio of wet to dry ingredients is off and the cookies end up drier and more crumbly.
• Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature). Using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
• Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugars. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
• Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
• Use parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Doing this will make it really easy to remove the cookies from your cookie sheet so that you don’t have to scrape them off the pan. They will just slide right off in perfect shape!
• Make sure that you don’t roll out the dough too thin before cutting your sugar cookies out. You want the dough to be about 1/4″ thick. If the dough is too thin, your cookies will be crispy and hard and easily breakable. But if the dough is too thick, the cookies may not bake all the way through the middle.
• Make sure not to over bake your cookies. They may not even look totally done on the tops, but if the bottoms start to brown, I take mine out and they are perfect!

HOW DO YOU KEEP SUGAR COOKIES SOFT?

This is another reason to love these cookies, thanks to the cream cheese in the dough- they stay softer for longer! After the cookies have cooled, simply place them in an airtight container to keep them fresh for as long as possible. It also helps to make sure that when you roll out the cookie dough that you do it to the right thickness so that they don’t become brittle when baking.

HOW LONG WILL DECORATED SUGAR COOKIES LAST?

If you keep your cookies properly stored you can expect them to last up to a week at room temperature.

MORE FESTIVE ST. PATRICK’S DAY TREATS:

• FUN & FESTIVE ST. PATRICK’S DAY DESSERTS
• ST. PATRICKS DAY SUGAR COOKIES
• MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
• EASY PISTACHIO CREAM PIE
• MINT MUDDY BUDDIES
• THE BEST MINT BROWNIES
• MINT CHIP DIP
• MINT CHOCOLATE POKE CAKE
• MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE
• MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP CREAM PIE
• MINT OREO BALLS
• CHOCOLATE PISTACHIO PINWHEEL COOKIES for ST. PATRICK’S DAY
• ST. PATRICKS DAY HOT CHOCOLATE BOMBS
• MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BARS
• DOUBLE CHOCOLATE MINT COOKIES

Lucky Charms Sugar Cookies are soft, sweet and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! Absolutely perfect cream cheese sugar cookie recipe frosted with a simple buttercream frosting and topped with Lucky Charms cereal.

I recently found this picture from about 13 years ago and had to laugh. This was our first experience with Disney World…the whole day was a disaster. It was pouring rain, S threw up all over the place, most of the rides kept shutting down because of lightning and we ended up bailing after about 3 hours because we were all miserable. It took us about 7 more years before we were brave enough to go back! We are going this week for Spring Break…fingers crossed that we have a little more fun than we did here!