Christmas Sugar Cookies

If you are looking for a sugar cookie recipe that holds its shape for decorating, but still tastes amazing, you need to try this one. These cookies come out buttery with a crisp edge but slightly soft center. You can decorate them with royal icing, sprinkles or with buttercream frosting. Set aside an afternoon of baking with the kids or the whole family. I promise you won’t be disappointed with these cookies.

Scroll down to get the full recipe for these Christmas Sugar Cookies. Otherwise, enjoy the pictures and annotated directions.

Annotated Directions

1. Gather up your ingredients. Your flour will need to be shifted, so be sure to have a shifter handy. Also, your eggs will need to be room temperature and your butter softened. This will ensure that your ingredients are properly mixed together for the perfect cookie dough.
   
   Also, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Oh yes, that’s two sticks of butter. I didn’t say these cookies were low-fat.

2. I normally mix my soften butter first before adding in my sugar to prevent a sugarstorm in my kitchen. Your butter will not cream unless it is at room temperature. If you’re working with butter straight from the fridge you can pop it into the microwave for ten to fifteen seconds to get it soft. Remember, soften does not mean melted.

3. After the butter and sugar have been creamed together, it’s time to add the eggs. Add the eggs in one at a time. Only add in the next egg after the first one has been incorporated nicely. Remember how I said that the eggs need to be room temperature? If the eggs came from the fridge, they might be cold enough to solidify the butter. To fix cold eggs, simply put in a cup full of warm tap water for several minutes. You may add the vanilla extract in this step.

4. Time to add in the shifted flour. Now, you may think that it’s a hassle to shift your flour. Where’s the harm in simply dumping the flour as is? The harm is that your dough might have small balls of raw flour, which doesn’t taste or feel nice. So take the time to shift the flour. Your cookies will taste divine due to this extra effort. Do not dump the flour into the mixture all at once. You will have a gigantic mess to clean up. Instead, be patient. Add the first cup of flour, mix it well, and add the next cup.

5. After the dough has been thoroughly combined, turn the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. You can do some last bit of kneading before rolling the dough into a ball, covering it, and letting it sit in the fridge. Ideally you will want this dough to rest in the fridge for an hour, but I let mine rest overnight. This part is crucial because the high butter content will make this dough sticky.

6. On a floured surface, start rolling out your dough. Your dough should be cold, but pliable enough to move around with your hands and rolling pin. If you need to, flour your rolling pin as well. It’s best to cut the dough in half, and place one half in the fridge. The dough can be rolled to a 1/4″ to 1/2″ thick, depending on how you like your cookies.

I suggest dipping your cookie cutters into some flour before cutting into the dough. This dough is sticky and tends to cling onto your cookie cutters. I will to arrange my cookie cutters on the dough first before cutting. Peeling the excess dough away from the cutters to make sure your cookies keep their shape.

7. These darling creations should be placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet about an inch apart from each other. Cookies do not take a long time to bake in the oven. Bake these cookies for eight to ten minutes and pull them out of the oven. They will continue cooking on the baking sheet. As tempting as it is, do not touch these cookies. Let them completely cool down on the baking sheet before moving them. These cookies come out soft from the oven, but will harden as they cool down.

8. You can choose to eat these scrumptious creations right away, or you can start decorating. You can choose what type of frosting to put on your cookies: royal icing, buttercream, fondant — it’s all up to you. Just make sure your cookies are completely cooled, otherwise, the frosting will melt. I chose to go with buttercream since I had some leftover. Add some food coloring and sprinkles, and we have some decadent Christmas Sugar Cookies.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

3 cups flour
1 ½ cups white sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream butter, then add sugar into mixture.
2. Crack one egg into butter and sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly before adding in the next egg and vanilla extract.
3. Grab a shifter and shift in dry ingredients. Add one cup of shifted flour, mix thoroughly, then add in the next cup. Do this process for all three cups and add the baking powder and salt.
4. The dough should be soft and pliable. Lay down a sheet of plastic film big enough for the dough and wrap it up. Place dough into the fridge for one hour or overnight.
5. Place dough on floured surface. Dough should be cold, but still workable. Roll dough out to 4/1″ to 1/02″ thickness, depending on what you’d like. Dip cookie cutters in flour, and cut into the dough. Place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheet.
6. Bake cookies for eight to ten minutes. Cookies will continue to cook on baking sheet. Let cool completely before frosting and decorating.