One of my favorite things to bake is iced sugar cookies.  Boring, you say?  With the right cookie recipe and the right icing recipe, iced sugar cookies become something really special.  And simple is good sometimes.

The best thing is, they can be made for any occassion.  Any holiday and any non-holiday, for that matter.  There’s a cookie cutter for just about everything, giving you no excuse to not make iced sugar cookie cutouts!

Here’s my favorite sugar cookie recipe.  EVER.

This makes great sugar cookie cutouts.  The key to a good iced cookie is the great tasting cookie below the icing!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts, from Biggest Book of Cookies
makes about 36 cookies

2/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
parchment paper
1 recipe Powdered Sugar Icing (found on How to Ice Sugar Cookies)

Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Line your baking sheets (you’ll need 2, maybe 3) with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occassionally.  Beat in egg, milk, and vanilla until combined.  Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.  Stir in any remaining flour with a wooden spoon.  Form dough into a large ball in your bowl and chill dough in refrigerator about 30 minutes or until easy to handle.

On a lightly floured surface (I spread a sheet of wax paper down first), roll out abotu 1/3 of the dough.  Make sure your rolling pin is dusted with flour, and I often spread some flour on top of the ball of dough before spreading.  Adding flour (so the dough doesn’t stick) is ok – you can’t really add too much.

Using a cookie cutter, cut into desired shapes.  Place 1 inch apart on the cookie sheet.  Once one of my sheets is full, I pop it into the freezer for about 5 minutes, which helps the cookies to keep their shape once in the oven. 

After 5 minutes, remove from freezer and bake in a 375ºF oven for 7 to 8 minutes.  The cookies will not look golden or quite done – you want them to still be light.  Let the cookies cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.  Cookies need to be entirely cooled before icing.

Check out How To Ice Sugar Cookies if you’re going to add some icing on top!

Hospitably Yours,
Stephanie