Basic Christmas Sugar Cookies Recipe

This is a basic sugar cookie recipe and it can be altered to your taste. It includes very basic and simple icing to decorate, so you don’t have to go out and buy expensive store-bought icing.

Christmas had never been exciting for us until the kids came along and they started celebrating it in school. For the past few years, we started forming our own little family traditions that we follow during the holiday season.

Among them making these sugar cookies are one of the tradition. For the past couple of years, I have been giving people edible gifts for Christmas. These cookies work great as gifts and the best part is the kids help me decorate these little treats.

Out of the few different varieties of cookies, I make these sugar cookies are a definite one. This recipe is a basic sugar cookie recipe and it can be altered to your taste.

I will include a very basic and simple icing recipe to decorate these cookies, so you don’t have to go out and buy that expensive store-bought icing. You could use cookies cutters to cut them into the desired shape or could use a circular disc to cut out circles.

This recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart

Preparation time – 15 mins plus 20 mins in the freezer
Cooking time – 10-18 mins per batch (depending on the size of the cookies)
Difficulty level – easy

Ingredients to make Sugar Cookies – Makes around 3 dozen

• All Purpose flour – 2 cups
• Baking powder – ½ tsp
• Salt – ¼ tsp
• Unsalted butter – ½ cup (1 stick) in room temperature
• Granulated sugar – 1 cup
• Egg – 1 large
• Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
• Assorted sprinkles or colored sugars – for decorating (optional)

Procedure –

• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside.

• In an electric mixer, cream butter, and sugar until light and fluffy. (About 8 mins). To this add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

• Gradually add the flour to the mixer and beat well until combined.

• Remove the dough from the counter and bring it together to form a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 2 wrap it in plastic and freeze until firm. (about 20 mins). At this stage, the dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw the dough in the refrigerator overnight.

• Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Remove one disk at a time and let it stand out for 5 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and roll the dough to about ⅛th inch thick. I used the plastic wrap on top of the dough when rolling to prevent the dough from sticking on the roller and also to ensure smooth top cookies.

• Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and using a spatula carefully remove them and transfer them to the baking sheets. Reroll the remaining dough and make more cookies. If the dough gets too soft, chill in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes and roll again.

• Bake the cookies for about 10 -18 mins, rotating halfway through. Keep an eye on the cookies for about 10 mins, because they can burn easily. Once the edges start becoming brown, remove it.

• Cool it completely on wire racks.

• Once the cookies are cooled completely, use icing to decorate as you wish. Let the icing dry for about 4 hrs before stacking the cookies into air tight container.

To make Icing –

• Sift 1 ½ cups of icing sugar in a bowl.

• Slowly add about 3 or 4 tbsps of water and mix well until smooth. Use the desired color and mix it well.

• Use the back of a spoon to spread the icing on the cookies.

 If you made this recipe and liked it, give a star rating on the recipe card or let me know in the comments below. You could also share it with me on Instagram using #MyCookingJourney and tagging me @sandhya.ramakrishnan. You could follow me and my recipes on Facebook |Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter/X

Recipe

Sugar Cookies

This is a basic sugar cookies recipe and it can be altered to your taste. It includes a very basic and simple icing to decorate, so you don’t have to go out and buy expensive store-bought icing.

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Course: Dessert, Festival Recipes, sweets

Cuisine: German

Diet: Low Fat

Prep Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 18 minutes minutes

Total Time: 53 minutes minutes

Servings: 36

Calories: 72kcal

Author: Sandhya Ramakrishnan

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cups All-Purpose flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon Baking powder
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon Salt
• ▢ ½ cup Unsalted butter 1 stick at room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup Granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 large Egg
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• ▢ for decorating Assorted sprinkles or colored sugars Optional

Instructions

• In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Keep aside.
• In an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (About 8 mins). To this add the egg and vanilla and beat well.
• Gradually add the flour to the mixer and beat well until combined.
• Remove the dough on the counter and bring it together to form a smooth dough. Divide the dough into 2 and wrap in plastic and freeze until firm. (about 20 mins). At this stage, the dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. When ready to use, thaw the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Remove one disk at a time and let it stand out for 5 mins. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and roll the dough to about ⅛th inch thick. I used the plastic wrap on top of the dough when rolling to prevent the dough from sticking on the roller and also to ensure smooth top cookies.
• Cut out shapes using cookie cutters and using a spatula carefully remove it and transfer it to the baking sheets. Reroll the remaining dough and make more cookies. If the dough gets too soft, chill in the refrigerator for about 10 mins and roll again.
• Bake the cookies for about 10 -18 mins, rotating halfway through. Keep an eye on the cookies for about 10 mins, because they can burn easily. Once the edges start becoming brown, remove it.
• Cool it completely on wire racks.
• Once the cookies are cooled completely, use icing to decorate as you wish. Let the icing dry for about 4 hrs before stacking the cookies into an airtight container.
• Sift 1 ½ cups of icing sugar in a bowl.
• Slowly add about 3 or 4 tbsps of water and mix well until smooth. Use the desired color and mix it well.
• Use the back of a spoon to spread the icing on the cookies.

Nutrition

Calories: 72kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 25mg | Potassium: 9mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 86IU | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @Sandhya.Ramakrishnan or tag #MyCookingJourney!