Wednesday, December 21, 2016

My favorite ever {super flavorful} sugar cookie recipe!


Decorating (and eating) sugar cookies is one of my absolute favorite Christmas traditions!!  I'll be honest, doing them with toddlers can be a little hectic :).  We usually split up the mixing, baking, and decorating so it can take us a day or two to finish them.  Decorating the cookies with my girls is my faaaaaavorite ever!!  We chat and show each other what fun designs we're doing.  I can't wait for B to be able to join us next year!

I'm not kidding this is the best and most flavorful sugar cookie recipe ever.  I mean, I hate to toot my own horn, but... Toot.  Toot.  I actually like the cookies better without frosting because they're so flavorful.  This is the perfect amount for a family, but I usually double this recipe if I'm making cookies for friends or neighbors.

***The lemon zest is the real secret to this recipe.  Lemon juice just doesn't taste as good, make sure you zest your lemon!  And if you don't have any almond extract, you can just use 1tsp. of vanilla extract, but it tastes better with the almond extract!


What you'll need:
-3/4 cup softened butter (1.5 sticks)
-4 oz softened cream cheese (half a brick)
-1 cup sugar
-1 egg
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
-1/2 tsp. almond extract
-zest of one lemon
-3 cups all purpose flour


What to do:
1. preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg together.  Once combined, add the salt, baking powder, vanilla and almond extracts, and lemon zest.
3. Add flour and mix until combined.
4. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface (dough should be about 1/4 inch thick) and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO REFRIGERATE THE DOUGH BEFORE BAKING!!
5. Bake on parchment paper for 7-9 minutes.  I bake mine for exactly 7 minutes so that they're still soft and chewy!  Transfer to a wire wrack and let cookies cool completely.
6. Decorate with frosting and sprinkles and enjoy!

I hope you love them as much as we do!!  Happy Holidays from my family to yours!


For icing, I like the kind that hardens a bit and doesn't stick if you stack the cookies.  I use a super simple recipe:

-2 cups powdered sugar
-4 tablespoons milk
-4 tablespoons light corn syrup
-optional: food coloring

Mix the ingredients together and decorate your cookies!

I usually make the icing in a large bowl and then split it into four or five small bowls.  Then I add food coloring to the small bowls to get the colors that we want.  The girls like to spread it on with little knives, but I like to put some icing in the bottom corner of a sandwich size ziplock bag, cut the tip of the bag off, and pipe it onto the cookies.

Decorate with sprinkles and enjoy!!

Our 2017 Christmas cookies.


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