This recipe was once a closely guarded secret. The story goes that someone's great aunt made the very best cream cheese cookies and fiercely guarded her recipe. She sweet talked her great aunt into giving her a copy but could never duplicate them just the same way her aunt had made. One day after her great aunt passed away a family member was to go through her things and happened upon her recipe box, where she found the original recipe for the cookies, and written on the recipe was "Secret Cream Cheese Cookies" and on the back was written, "DO NOT GIVE OUT UNTIL I AM DEAD". Luckily for me and you, this wonderful person shared the recipe here.

I made some alterations to this recipe, as well as added in some techniques, so hopefully you too can duplicate this recipe, to the enjoyment of your family and friends. I hear this makes a good spritz cookie base as well. It is also the base dough for my Double Cookie Cookie Monster Cookies Instructable

I chose this recipe because every time I bring this cookie somewhere I see several people eating the cookies, then eating more, telling others, or even grabbing extras to bring to their spouses to try, and then of course the questions come "Who made these? Where can I get the recipe?"

Seriously...I had the wife of the deputy CIO of the company I work at trying to track down this recipe from me...it is that good.

My advice is to do yourself a favor and print at least 3 copies of the recipe to bring with you every time you bring these cookies somewhere. That or just tell them to search for this instructable.

And with that, I give you, Secret Recipe Cream Cheese cookies...the secret is out!

Step 1: The Recipe

If you are an established cook, this is probably all of the information you will need. But fear not, I will also provide step by step instructions with pictures later on.

Secret Cream Cheese Cookies
This recipe will make approximatel 70 cookies. If you do not have a stand mixer, you should halve both the dough and the frosting recipe. the original recipe was for half this quantity, but trust me, once you bring these somewhere, they will not last and you will want to keep some for yourself.

2 cups butter
6 oz cream cheese
2 cups sugar
2 egg yolks
5 cups flour
2 Tbsp. vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese . Slowly add sugar beat until fluffy
Beat in egg yolk, add flour and vanilla. Mix Well. Chill dough
For at least 1 hour. Shape into 1 inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheet, or cookie sheet lined with a silpat. If your hands were warm or you let the dough sit at all at room temp, refridgerate again up to overnight.
Bake at 325 degrees for 15-18 mins. The cookies will not brown but should not have any tranclucent shiny parts when they are done.

Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons lime juice
4 tablespoons of butter

Cream butter and add sugar slowly add lime juice. Scoop frosting into a plastic ziplock sandwich bag, snip off the tip. Use the baggie to pipe lines of frosting on the cookies while still warm (let cookies sit about 10 minutes after being removed from oven on the pan to cool, then move them to the plate you wish to frost them on).

Step 2: Cream Butter and Cream Cheese

This step is pretty easy, just like the title...Cream the butter and cream cheese together. I've also noted that here you are using 6 oz cream cheese, I like to use my fingernail to draw a line on the 6 oz mark so when I go to cut, I can see where 6 oz is. 2 cups butter is four sticks of butter. Save the butter papers for greasing your cookie sheets. Mix the butter and cream cheese together until they look, well creamy.

Step 3: Slowly Add Sugar Beat Until Fluffy

Add the 2 Cups of sugar in slowly as the beater is mixing. Beat until they look fluffy.

Step 4: Separate Egg and Add Just the Yolk

To separate an egg, using a clean bowl, crack the egg and then pour the egg yolk back and forth between the two halves of the egg shell until all of the white is left in the bowl. Save this for scrambled eggs or making macarons. You won't need the egg white for the rest of this recipe. Dump the 2 egg yolks into the mixer and run the mixer until it is incorporated.

Step 5: Add Flour and Vanilla

Add 5 cups of flour, slowly so you don't get a giant puff cloud of flour. Mix. Add 2 Tbsp vanilla. Mix well.

Take your bowl and park it in the fridge for at least 1 hour...chill out.

Step 6: Roll Out Dough Balls, Bake and Cool.

Shape into 1 inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheet, or cookie sheet lined with a silpat. If your hands were warm or you let the dough sit at all at room temp, refridgerate again up to overnight. Why's that? Well you can go ahead and bake them right away, but they will spread more. In my humble opinion they taste better when they remain thicker and denser, which is achieved by putting chilled dough into a 325 degree oven, versus room temp dough.

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Bake them for 15-18 minutes at 325 degrees. The cookies will not brown but should not have any tranclucent shiny parts when they are done.

Step 7: Make Frosting

Cream butter and add sugar slowly add lime juice.

You could if you wish use another type of flavoring but lime is my personal favorite, because we have a lime tree :)

Step 8: Frost the Cookies

Scoop frosting into a plastic ziplock sandwich bag, snip off the tip. Use the baggie to pipe lines of frosting on the cookies while still warm (let cookies sit about 10 minutes after being removed from oven on the pan to cool, then move them to the plate you wish to frost them on).