Sugar Cookies

Thursday night after our family watched another Hallmark Christmas movie...I decided to bake some sugar cookies for a "midnight" snack! Not the wisest of choices when you start them at 8pm...they really did turn into a "midnight" snack. ;) But, they are ever so worth it. Simple, quick, and they turn out almost perfect every time. 

Here is the recipe:

SUGAR COOKIES

3/4 cup Butter, at room temperature
1 cup Sugar
2 Eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
2 1/2 cups Flour 
1 tsp Baking Powder 
1/2 tsp Salt 

*Whip butter until creamy. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. 
*Add flour, baking powder, and salt. 
*Form into a ball.

*Wrap in lightly floured plastic wrap.
*Chill at least 1hr (this is the secret to perfect sugar cookies).
*Roll dough on floured surface, cut, and bake at 400° for 7-8 min.

Makes about 2 dozen...depending on how thick you make your cookies. 


I double my recipe! (And since no one ever has a big recipe and I have to do the calculations myself while baking, I'm adding the double recipe for big families) :)

Sugar Cookies-Doubled

1 1/2 cups Butter, at room temperature
2 cups Sugar
4 Eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
5 cups Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt

*Whip butter until creamy. Add sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix well. 
*Add flour, baking powder, and salt. 
*Form into a ball.
*Wrap in lightly floured plastic wrap.
*Chill at least 1hr (this is the secret to perfect sugar cookies).
*Roll dough on floured surface, cut, and bake at 400° for 7-8 min.

Makes about 4 dozen...depending on how thick you make your cookies. 

Buttercream Frosting  

12 oz Butter, at room temperature
1 lb Powedered Sugar, sifted
1 - 1 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

*Cream butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer. 

*Add the sifted powdered sugar ... once the mixture has come together, stop and scrape the bowl and paddle attachment. 

*Turn your mixer up to medium speed and paddle for about 5 min to make the mixture light and fluffy. 

*Turn mixer to low and vanilla and if you want to add any other flavorings; once incorporated return mixer to med speed and continue to paddle for 2 more minutes.

~I use little plastic containers to divide up the frosting and add the food coloring. If you're like me and want a lot of colors to choose from, be wise in your coloring choices. By that I mean...you don't want to have to make a ton of frosting just to have color options. So for me, I frosted all the Christmas trees first with the green, and a few mittens. Used up as much green as I was going to, then added a few yellow and red drops, to get brown for the tree trunks & gingerbread men. Make sense? Any other time I would have just made brown to begin with, but then you're left with a lot of wasted frosting...that adds to the expense, and the waste...not good. So make a plan! :)

Here are a few pics:

Don't mind the white ones...those were the "midnight snack" ones. ;)

Hope you enjoy these as much as our family does~ 
Heather