Polish Cream Cheese Cookies

Polish cream cheese cookies are popular around the holidays & are known for being soft and delicate, slightly sweet, & the perfect bite sized treat! They can be filled with a variety of fruity jams or a custard-like cream cheese mixture. In this recipe, cream cheese custard is the filling of choice.

These doughy cookies are one of my favorites to bring out at Christmas because of their unique texture and flavor compared to the beloved seasonal cookies like peppermint, eggnog, gingerbread, among other flavors. Having this slightly sweet and doughy cookie in the mix creates balance against the rich, flavor-packed holiday candies and cookies. I will say, a jam filled cookie is one of my favorites and always hits the spot after devouring. a rich chocolate peppermint cookie. These polish pastry cookies are a nice palette change from those super sweet and rich holiday cookies.

This post is all about how to make classic polish cream cheese cookies to add to you cookie selection and get you in the holiday spirit!

Jump to Recipe

Complete Shopping List For Polish Cream Cheese Cookies

When it comes to the ingredients in a cookie recipe I usually have no problem finding majority of ingredients in my pantry already. Yet somehow there’s always one or two ingredients that I just never have on hand. When I go to the store to get those missing ingredients, I swear I always feel the need to buy more of the baking staples just in case there’s not enough at home for the recipe. Now I’m not sure if this qualifies me as a prepared baker or just an anxious one. Either way, it eases my mind to know I have extra ingredients on hand and makes it easier to take on those spontaneous baking days!

You might already have a lot of these ingredients on hand, but make sure you have enough cream cheese as we will be using lots in the recipe 🙂

What You’ll Need:

1. Two 8oz blocks of cream cheese. I like to use the 1/3 less fat
2. Eggs
3. Granulated white sugar
4. Vanilla extract
5. 8 oz butter
6. Flour
7. Powdered sugar
8. *Optional – Jam of choice if you want to make some with cream cheese filling and others with a fruity jam filling

If you’re looking for a nonstick baking pan (like the ones pictured in this post), I absolutely love my gold pan set from Nordic Ware. I originally got a set of 3 different sizes from Costco, but they have stopped selling them. Thankfully, Nordic Ware still offers different gold sheet sizes like this 2 pack quarter sized cookie sheet set. I love how thick and durable they are and the fact that the nonstick actually works.

Step By Step Process To Making Polish Cream Cheese Cookies

Not going to lie, these cookies take a little extra lovin’ to make. We won’t be rolling the dough into balls and watching them turn into cute little round disks in the oven. These polish cream cheese cookies are rolled into squares and delicately folded by the corners to make a cute blanket fold over the filling. Let me break it down.

To make the dough:

1. In a medium bowl, you will mix together one package of cream cheese and the butter
2. Once combined, mix in the vanilla extract and powdered sugar
3. Add in the flour and mix with your hands for best results to fully incorporate the flour
4. Divide dough in half and flatten a little
5. Refrigerate for at least an hour or leave to chill overnight

To make the filling:

1. Make the cream cheese filling by beating together one package of cream cheese, an egg yolk, vanilla extract and sugar in a mixing bowl. Set aside.

Assembling and baking:

1. Take out only one disk and roll dough out on a floured surface. Roll into a rectangle that is approximately 1/8″ thick. It’s better to be on the thinner side for these cookies.
2. Cut the rectangle dough into 2 inch squares. Really strive to cut in squares rather than rectangles as it will be more difficult to fold the cookie from a rectangle shape.
3. Place a small line of jam or cream cheese filling (about 1/2 teaspoon) on each square diagonally from one top corner to the opposite bottom corner.
4. In a small bowl, mix together one egg white with a 1/2 tablespoon of water.
5. Fold the top corner without jam towards the middle and fold the bottom corner without the jam on top of it. Place a small drop of the egg mixture onto the overlapping portion of the corners then press the corners firmly (but gently) together to fuse them together.
6. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and do one last check that the tops are fused together by pressing down gently on the top of all the overlapping portions of the cookies. This will ensure they don’t come apart while baking.
7. Bake for around 10-15 minutes at 400°F.
8. Cool on a baking rack and dust with powdered sugar when ready to serve.

How To Make These Your Own

Everytime I come across these cookies at a party or am gifted a tin of these during the holidays, my curiosity is peaked by the fillings. It’s a fun little guessing game I play with myself to figure out what flavors are used in each cookie. Is it a strawberry or raspberry jam? Is there a custard in any or are they all fruity? Some literal food for thought there.

For anyone that might like to play the guessing game too, you can change up the flavors of the filling for these cookies! Use different flavors of jams or marmalades, I don’t think you could go wrong with any fruity flavor. Orange marmalade, blackberry, blueberry, cherry, mixed berry, and other jams would be amazing. If you’re a fan of spice, using a habanero or other pepper infused jam would add a fun twist!

My favorite jam to use is Smucker’s Raspberry Preserves from Target. I always have a jar of this on hand and use it for a quick PB & J on days that I’m just too busy to make anything else.

Where Does The Polish Cream Cheese Cookie Come From?

Also known as Kolaczki, this is a traditional polish cookie that almost mimics a delicate pastry. It’s filled with jams, cream cheese, poppyseed, fruit preserves and more. They are folded delicately with two corners fused together and are dusted with powdered sugar.

Are These A Holiday Cookie?

These cookies are so unique compared to what is usually served in a holiday cookie tin. They aren’t overly sweet and are a lighter cookie than most. In the Chicago suburbs where I grew up, these cookies are usually brought out during the holiday season. I think they deserve to be an all-year-round cookie but I will happily keep them around during the holidays since they are so unique and

Why You Will Love These Cookies

Here are a few reasons why these cookies are so. dang. delicious.

• The dough is fairly simple to make. Not too many ingredients and not too sweet either.
• They are light and soft like a fresh pastry, but in cookie form!
• They can be a fun activity to do with kids, family or friends. Since the assembly process is a little more involved than most cookies, having some extra hands will definitely help the time go by faster.
• They are bite sized so you don’t feel bad for having a few at a time
• The dough surprisingly makes a lot of cookies so there’s always plenty to share!
• They’re simply just fun to eat. Feel free to back me up on this one if you’ve had them before or once you make this recipe!

Managing Your Presentation Expectations & Tips For Beginners

One of the toughest parts of baking is managing your expectations when the goods don’t come out looking as pretty as you anticipated. It’s not the end of the world, but it might feel like a little punch to the gut. It deserves an “aw crap” and a sigh of slight defeat but after that, you got to shake it off and try again another time. At the end of the day, if they taste good, that’s all that really matters!

Here’s a few quick tips for success!

• Make sure your dough is rolled out evenly so that the same thickness is achieved for every cookie! Keeping the dough on the thinner side is better than the other way around. If the dough is too thick, it will make it hard to fuse the corners of the dough together without falling apart in the oven.
• Use a square tool to cut the dough. Eyeballing it is a little rough and I can attest to the fact that it is more difficult to fold the dough when it’s in a rectangular shape. If you have a square cookie cutter or small square shape container to use to cut the dough, I highly recommend using it! It makes assembling the cookies much easier when the cookies are the same size and shape. It also helps the cookies cook evenly.
• Be sure to firmly press the corners together when assembling otherwise they will split apart when baking.
• Don’t overfill them. Having too much filling will make these messy and hard to fuse together.
• Keep the dough chilled as much as possible. When the dough gets too warm, it will become sticky and hard to work with. Adding flour will help but be careful not to use too much or the cookies will dry out.
• Only dust with powdered sugar once ready to serve. Hold off on the powder sugar if you plan on storing these and eating them throughout a few days. The powder sugar will eventually soak into the cookies and might make them feel a little sticky or moist.

If you made this recipe or are planning on adding this to your holiday cookie arrangement, let me know in the comments below how they turned out! What is your favorite holiday cookie besides these polish pastry-style cookies?