I have been making these sugar cookies for well over 15 years. It’s one of my favorite sugar cookie recipes. These cookies are scrumptious! They are soft and flaky with a light vanilla flavor and are simply delicious.
When my oldest daughter was four, I made these cookies for her Valentine’s Party for playschool. I colored the dough pink, cut them into big hearts and once cooked and cooled, I iced the cookies with white and pink icing. The cookies were a hit and everyone asked for the recipe. So for Christmas, I printed the cookie recipe out and attached the recipe to a cookie cutter with ribbon and my daughter handed them out. Everyone loved them! I had an extra one and have kept it all these years. Here’s what I made for her to hand out:
This is my go-to sugar cookie recipe and I make them for nearly any holiday! They’re so good.
Let’s get started!
Combine butter and icing sugar (aka powdered sugar or confectioners sugar).
Cream until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg and beat well. You can use other extracts like orange if you like.
Add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir.
Add another cup of flour and stir well.
Add remaining flour if needed. Dough should not be sticky.
Place dough on floured surface.
Bring dough together. I fold the dough over and over until it comes together. Sprinkle with flour.
Roll out to about 1/4” thick. I usually keep the dough a bit thicker which makes the cookies softer.
Cut cookies out with your favorite holiday cookie cutters.
Place on baking sheet.
Bake at 350F for 6 to 12 minutes, depending upon the size of the cookie, or until edges are golden.
Place cookies on cooling rack and let cool completely.
Once cooled, decorate any which way you like. We made simple flooding icing.
For our melted snowmen cookies, we placed icing on the cookie and carefully went towards the edge but left a border and placed the snowman head on which we used leftover cookie dough but you can also use marshmallows. Let dry. If piping icing, pipe a border and let dry, then flood the cookie.
Decorate wet on wet which I did with stocking. ‘H’ did wet on dry with her tree and cookie man. For the candy cane, she piped the icing on, dipped it in red sprinkles and let it dry before piping the white icing. There really are so many ways to decorate cookies!
Here’s our finished cookies. We each decorated 4 and we ate the rest with my brother! These cookies are so good!
Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1-1/2 cups icing sugar (aka powdered sugar or confectioners sugar)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 to 2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
Combine butter and icing sugar (aka powdered sugar or confectioners sugar). Cream until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, egg and beat well. Add flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add another cup of flour and stir well. Add remaining flour if needed. Dough should not be sticky. Place dough on floured surface. Bring dough together. I fold the dough over and over until it comes together. Sprinkle with flour. Roll out to about 1/4” thick. I usually keep the dough a bit thicker which makes the cookies softer. Cut cookies out with your favorite holiday cookie cutters. Place on baking sheet. Bake at 350F for 6 to 12 minutes, depending upon the size of the cookie, or until edges are golden. Place cookies on cooling rack and let cool completely. Decorate any which way you like — you can use melted chocolate or simple flooding icing like we did. Let set. Store in an airtight container. These cookies freeze well.
Flooding Icing
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp water
Combine icing sugar, vanilla and water together. Add more water until you get the right consistency – it should be able to be piped through a bag, and spooned onto the cookie without being too thick or too thin. Pipe an outline first and let dry slightly. Spoon icing into middle and spread or shake until smooth and covers cookie. Decorate as desired.
