Make Your Cookies Fluffier With One Simple Swap

Cookies made with butter inevitably taste better than the kinds made with margarine or some other type of spread. There is one ingredient swap, though, that can make them even more flavorful and fluffy. According to Joanne Gallagher, co-founder of the cooking blog Inspired Taste, using cream cheese to replace part of the butter in cookie dough can enhance both the texture and the taste. As she explains, "It adds extra moisture without making the dough too wet, which gives it a tender bite while keeping the cookies from spreading too much."

Besides being fluffier and more tender, cookies made with cream cheese will have a somewhat denser texture than ones made with butter alone. The cheese, too, adds a slight tang to the dough, something Gallagher says "helps balance the sweetness, making cookies taste just a little more complex in the best way possible."

The best way to swap cream cheese for butter in a cookie recipe is to replace just a portion of the latter ingredient — Gallagher recommends anywhere from one-quarter to one-half the amount. This way, she says, "You get buttery richness while adding that signature softness." She reminds us, however, that the cream cheese should be at room temperature so it can better combine with the butter and sugar to make a smooth, homogeneous dough.

Cream cheese is a perishable ingredient, so how does it affect the way you store the cookies? Joanne Gallagher assures us that if you've made a batch of cookies using both cream cheese and butter in the dough, something along the lines of our peanut butter and jelly rugelachs, then it should be okay for a few days at room temperature. In fact, she points out that "Since [cream cheese] has a lower water content than butter, it also helps the cookies stay softer for longer."

If your cookies contain a high proportion of cream cheese, like our three-ingredient no-bake Oreo balls or a sandwich cookie with a cream cheese filling, then you will need to refrigerate them right away. As Gallagher explains, "Cookies that have a lot of cream cheese shouldn't be left out because it can go bad pretty quickly." If you won't be eating the entire batch in a hurry, you can also freeze cream cheese cookies. Cream cheese itself can be frozen, while cheesecakes freeze beautifully (just ask Sara Lee). Whether you refrigerate or freeze your cookies, though, Gallagher advises, "Just let them come back to room temp before serving so they're nice and soft again."