I make these Christmas sugar cookies for the vacations yearly! Reduce into festive shapes, they’re good for adorning with icing and sprinkles.
Let’s make Christmas sugar cookies! My household loves breaking out our cookie cutters to bake these cookies for the vacations yearly.
They’re basic cut-out sugar cookies, with crisp edges, tender middles, and a heat, buttery taste from vanilla and almond extract. Made with a easy 8-ingredient dough, they maintain their form within the oven, which suggests you can reduce them into all types of vacation shapes.
Whilst you may take pleasure in these Christmas sugar cookies plain, we expect half the enjoyable of constructing them is adorning them. High them with icing, plus sprinkles, coloured sugar, and/or candies for a festive vacation deal with.
Why You’ll Love These Christmas Sugar Cookies
They’re straightforward to make with 8 elements. You in all probability have every thing you want already!
They style scrumptious, with a heat, buttery taste.
They’re good for adorning. Seize some vacation cookie cutters to chop out shapes, then high them with icing! I’m sharing a royal icing choice and a non-royal icing choice under.
They freeze effectively. This recipe requires chilling the dough, so it may possibly take a number of hours to bake and beautify these cookies. I like to interrupt up the steps by baking the cookies, then freezing them in order that they’re prepared to brighten on one other day.
Make Christmas Sugar Cookies
You could find the whole Christmas sugar cookie recipe with measurements on the backside of this publish. For now, right here’s a fast overview of the way it goes:
Begin by making the cookie dough. I take advantage of softened butter on this recipe, so I make the dough in a stand mixer (an electrical hand mixer works too).
I cream collectively the butter and sugar, then add an egg to bind the dough collectively and preserve the cookies tender. Subsequent, I combine within the vanilla and almond extracts.
Lastly, I step by step add the dry elements and blend till a tender cookie dough types.
Subsequent, chill the dough. Divide it in half, and kind every half right into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap every tightly in plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 2 hours and as much as 2 days.
Tip: Don’t skip this step! Chilling the sugar cookie dough helps the reduce outs maintain their form.
After the dough chills, roll it out. Place one disk on a calmly floured work floor, and use a rolling pin to roll it out till it’s 1/4-inch thick.
Tip: If the dough is simply too agency to roll out straight away, let it sit at room temperature for five to 10 minutes to melt.
Use cookie cutters to chop out your required shapes. Re-roll the scraps as vital, and repeat with the remaining disk of dough.
Bake the cookies in a 350°F oven till the sides are simply starting to show golden brown, usually 9 to 11 minutes. The cookies will nonetheless appear underdone within the center, however they’ll arrange as they cool.
Permit every batch to chill on the baking sheet for two minutes earlier than transferring to a wire rack to chill fully.
Suggestions for Making Christmas Sugar Cookies
Use parchment paper. It makes cleanup straightforward and helps the cookies bake evenly. I discover that once I bake cookies straight on a baking sheet, they turn out to be too darkish beneath.
Bake one sheet at time. Temperatures can differ all through an oven. For probably the most even bake, I like to recommend baking one cookie sheet at a time on a rack within the middle of the oven. You don’t need cookies on a low oven rack to burn earlier than ones on the highest rack are prepared!
The bake time might differ. It is going to depend upon the dimensions of your cut-outs. I discover that 9 to 11 minutes is an efficient vary for many cookies, however when you have very small cookie cutters, begin checking the cookies at 7 minutes. For those who’re making massive cookies, they could must bake for 12 or extra.
Adorn Christmas Sugar Cookies
My favourite a part of making these cookies is adorning them! Listed here are the 2 sugar cookie icings I like to make use of:
Royal icing (pictured) – Made with meringue powder, one of these icing units up with a agency texture, which makes it nice for piping advantageous strains and flooding/filling in shapes. I’m sharing the recipe I take advantage of within the recipe notes under.
A brilliant easy sugar cookie icing – After I’m not planning to brighten sugar cookies with intricate designs, I make a brilliant easy icing with milk (any type) and powdered sugar. I begin with 1 tablespoon milk and three/4 cup powdered sugar and add extra of every as wanted to create a thick drizzleable consistency. This icing takes longer to harden. Retailer cookies in a single layer till it units up.
Be at liberty so as to add meals coloring to both icing to make your required colours. After including icing, high the cookies with candies, sprinkles, or coloured sugar to make them look extra-festive.
Retailer
Retailer iced cookies in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 4 days. Unfrosted cookies preserve effectively at room temperature.
These sugar cookies additionally freeze effectively. Seal them in an hermetic container or freezer bag and freeze for as much as 3 months. You possibly can freeze them earlier than or after adorning.
Extra Christmas Cookie Recipes
For those who love these Christmas sugar cookies, attempt certainly one of these festive cookie recipes subsequent:
Christmas Sugar Cookies
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