Who am I kidding? Not today, there’s not! Today is for buying those delicious donuts, pies, and cookies that someone else has baked with love! But, in the days to follow that your little (and big!) ones have days off from school and work, baking and decorating sugar cookies is a fun activity. This year, I tried a new recipe that I hope by next year, my little one will be big enough to participate… at least he’ll be able to appreciate the deliciousness of the fun next year! I got these cute cookie cutters from D.O. and of course, the secret ingredient is that bottle of Vanilla Extract!
Sugar Cookies
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), softened
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, almond, peppermint, or coconut extract (I went with classic vanilla)
- 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and extract until well-combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together remainder of cookie ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet in batches until combined.
- Divide dough into quarters, form into discs, and wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours. (I left them in fridge over night. You just need to give time to warm up a bit- 10 minutes or so!)
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Removed one disc from fridge and roll out on floured surface until dough is 1/8″-1/4″ thick.
- Cut with cookie cutter and baked on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 minutes, watching closely. Cookies are done when bottoms are just barely golden brown. Let cool completely on wire racks before frosting. Make sure cookie sheets are cool to touch before place more cookie dough on them.
- Spread finished frosting onto cooled sugar cookies. I just used a knife to spread across but feel free to pipe the cookies if you’re feeling fancy! If you’d like to use sprinkles, apply them before the frosting dries.
Icing
- 2 -3 tablespoons butter, softened (I added a couple extra tablespoons of butter after the taste test!)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4-1/2 cup half-and-half cream, divided
- 2 cups powdered sugar, divided
- additional powdered sugar, as needed
- food coloring, if desired
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Beat together butter, vanilla, 1 tablespoon cream, and a half cup powdered sugar; stir in a few drops food coloring.
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Add alternating portions of 1-2 TBS. cream then a half cup powdered sugar; beating after each addition until well blended.
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Continue adding and beating in portions of cream then powdered sugar until you have incorporated all the ingredients; stir in additional cream or powdered sugar if necessary.
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You may vary the amounts of cream and/or powdered sugar to achieve desired frosting amount and consistency – Your choice of a nice and thick frosting, a very thin glaze, or anything in between is possible.
