I love sugar cookies especially during the holiday season. The kids love helping make them and frosting them... and eating them. I highly recommend using a Joseph Joseph rolling pin which keeps the dough an even thickness. If you don't have one, you can set rulers on either side of the dough that are the same thickness (ensure your rolling pin stays on the rulers).
Using good quality ingredients will yield the best tasting cookies! Use real butter and real vanilla extract, if possible.
The texture of these cookies is perfect. They are great with or without icing. I like to decorate with royal icing.
Here is what you will need:
1/2 cup of unsalted butter (room temp)
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 egg
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup flour for dusting surface and rolling pin
Here's what you need to do:
Heat your oven to 350F. I recommend using a sheet of parchment paper on your cookie sheet for easy clean up! Prepare your cookie sheets with parchment. If you're not using parchment, you do not need to grease your pan.
Mix the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes so that they are well-creamed. Add vanilla and mix well. Add egg and mix well again.
Add in the salt, powder, and flour. Mix. Dough should be slightly sticky, but not super sticky. If it's super sticky (sticks to your finger), then add a bit more flour and mix again.
Dust the surface you'll be rolling the dough on. If you have a rolling mat, dust that a bit with flour. Dust the rolling pin a bit too.
Put the dough in the flour-dusted area. Put a little flour on the dough and rub it around so that it has a nice coating of flour. Flip the dough over. Repeat.
Roll the dough 1/4" thick. Using cookie cutters of choice, cut your shapes and place on the prepped cookie sheets.
Bake for 6-8 minutes (smaller cookies have shorter bake time, large cookies have longer baker times, thicker cookies will also take longer - adjust accordingly). The edges should be slightly golden brown. If the edges are browning but the centers don't look done, lower your oven temp.
Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or so before removing to cooling rack.
Let cookies fully cool before covering with icing (about an hour).
Yields about 18 cookies (3")
Note: if your cookies are spreading in the oven, the dough may be too warm before baking (maybe the butter was too warm). You can put the cut dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before baking to help stop spreading.
