Sugar cookies are one of those basic recipes that you can change up a ton of ways: chocolate chip, frosted, shapes, sprinkles. All from one super-simple recipe.
Ingredients
1 pound butter (oops, only had a half-pound in the photo)
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
5 cups flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
Optional
milk, sugar sprinkles
Directions
This is really complicated, so I’ll type slowly. (If you haven’t had your morning coffee yet, you might have missed that that’s a joke, son.)
Combine the butter, sugar and eggs and beat until combined, but not smooth.
Add the vanilla, baking powder and salt and mix.
Add the flour and mix until just combined.
Scoop into a zip-top bag, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour to let the flour hydrate.
Over a floured surface, break off a little dough at a time and press flat.
Sprinkle with a little more flour and roll to an eighth-inch thick.
Cut out the shapes you want.
Put the cookies cutters close together so you can get the most out of each piece.
Yes, these were going to a first communion party. We normally just go with “round”.
Lift up the pieces between the shapes you cut out.
Joking aside, here’s the one really good tip here: Use a metal spatula to lift them up from the counter.
If you try to do this by hand, you’ll mash the corners. A plastic spatula will work in a pinch, but a metal one has a much thinner edge.
Line the pieces up on a baking sheet.
Don’t worry about spacing them out, they don’t spread. And there’s enough butter in these that you don’t even need to grease the pan. Seriously.
If you want to add some decorations, brush the tops with a little milk, so it will stick.
We used sugar and those little silver balls.
Yes, those are little tiny hands dropping decorations all over the place.
They don’t understand the concept of restraint.
Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.
Yeah, that one in the back? We haven’t got a clue how that happened.
Transfer to a rack to let them cool, or the bottoms could get soggy.
And that’s it.
Ingredients
- 1 pound butter
- 1½ cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 5 cups flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- -- Optional --
- milk, sugar sprinkles
Instructions
Combine the butter, sugar and eggs and beat until combined, but not smooth. Add the vanilla, baking powder and salt and mix. Add the flour and mix until just combined.
Scoop into a zip-top bag, or wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour to let the flour hydrate.
Roll out to one eighth inch thick and cut out shapes. To decorate, brush with milk and sprinkle on colored sugar, sprinkles, etc.
Place on an un-greased baking sheet and bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.
