sugar cookies with cream cheese icing

So today for playgroup I decided it would be fun to let the kids decorate some pumpkin cookies, and it gave me an excuse to try a new cookie recipe with a good way to get rid of a lot of cookies without eating them all.  I need that.  I have no willpower when it comes to eating cookies.  I had seen this recipe on My kitchen cafe this past week,  and I wanted to try it, but not if they were going to sit in my house for me to eat.   I was more than happy to give it a try to share.
After all Mel's bragging about these cookies I was sadly not super impressed.  Maybe I overstirred the batter, maybe I added too much flour (I did add a Tablespoon or 2, but I had also turned my mixer on too fast and poofed out a lot of flour and the dough was very wet.  To me I was replacing the flour on my counter)  Anyway, not sure what would make these end up dry, but I found them a bit dry.  I overcooked a couple of batches according to mel's directions to not let the bottoms brown at all, but even the not brown batch seemed a bit dry.   Doesn't seem possible as wet as the dough was - it was a bit hard to roll.  I had to roll it with plenty of flour.  I also had to be gentle so it wouldn't be totally stuck to the counter.  Anyway, from the look of the dough, I really thought they would live up to the melt in your mouth review that Mel had given them.  The dough was light and fluffy.  The cookies look light and fluffy, but when eating the cookie I felt like I need more and more icing.  ?? What I did like was the flavor.   I liked the lemon zest, almond, and vanilla.
Mel's icing was also good.  Nice and fluffy, and wonderfully tasty with the cream cheese.  It was delicious.  However I'm not sure it is better enough to be worth all of the cream in it.  I guess I'm just a simpleton in my cookies.  I want them to roll out easy, not need refrigeration and my icing just has to be thick, not fluffy and creamy.
Mel has lots of notes about exactly how to cook these here, but I'm just putting the simple directions from  Good things catered.  I may try them again because the flavor was good, but I would definitely not follow the mel directions of adding 2 cups flour first.  I'd just add it all and stir it less.  Her other directions are good though.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks) room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest (2 lemons for me.)
• 5 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cream butter and sugars in a mixer for 5 minutes
3. Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing thoroughly.  Add vanilla, almond and lemon zest.
4. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt a little at a time.  Do not over mix, this process should take about 1 minute.
5. Chill dough or roll and cut right away.
6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or spray lightly with cooking spray.  Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes.
7. Allow to cool and frost.

Here is Mel's icing


Ingredients

• 1 8 oz package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, salt and vanilla.  Mix until very smooth and light with no lumps.  In a separate bowl, beat the cream to stiff peaks.  (I actually used both my kitchenaid and bosch to do this - one beat the cream cheese and one beat the whipping cream - was done super fast.)  
2. Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mixture.  Mix until well combined and smooth.  Store in the fridge.