Swap Butter With Cream Cheese For The Softest Cookies You'll Ever Bake

Butter and baked goods are a match made in heaven. It's impossible to think of croissants or biscuits without that essential and delicious dairy product. Butter in cookies works wonders, giving them a rich and luscious flavor. It also makes the cookies crispy and allows them to brown better than some other fats. It's the perfect choice for those who like cookies that have a bit of snap or crunch to them.

Not everyone wants a firmer cookie, however. Fans of softer, chewier cookies may want to try going in a new direction with their favorite recipes with one simple substitution –- swapping out the butter for cream cheese. It's simple to do. Soften the cream cheese just as you would do with the butter. Cream the cream cheese together with whatever sugar you're using. Then just follow the rest of your recipe.

It's amazing what a difference this alteration can make in the final product, whether you're making a sugar cookie or a chocolate chip cookie. Cream cheese leads to a more pillowy soft cookie over butter because it holds the dough together better than butter and so the cream cheese cookies don't spread as much.

One of the biggest differences between butter and cream cheese is the amount of fat each contains. One ounce of butter has 23 grams of fat compared to 9.8 grams in the same amount of cream cheese. The lack of fat in cream cheese may mean that cookies made with it won't brown as much as those made with butter. If the amount of fat is too low, it can affect how the cookies turn out. They may become tough and dry. That's why some recipes suggest sticking to full-fat cream cheese as low-fat versions of it.

Be aware that cream cheese may also have more salt than butter as well. So you'll want to adjust your recipe accordingly. You're going to want to keep an eye on baking times, too, when switching from butter to cream cheese. It appears that 10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit seems to be the sweet spot for cream cheese cookies.