Our base Christmas Sugar Cookies dough yields tender, buttery sugar cookies prime for our Royal Icing decoration. The best part about these cookies? No chilling or freezing required! Whether you’re making ornaments, winter trees, or snowflakes, simply roll out your dough, cut into desired shapes, and bake.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Makes about 36 cookie
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (240 grams) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 large egg (50 grams), room temperature
- 2 teaspoons (8 grams) vanilla extract
- 3¼ cups (406 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons (7.5 grams) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
- Royal Icing (recipe follows)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar, slowly increasing mixer speed to medium, until fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add egg and vanilla, beating until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating until a dough forms. Scrape sides of bowl, and knead dough 3 to 4 times in bowl to make sure everything is well combined.
- Divide dough in half; cover one half with plastic wrap. On a heavily floured surface, roll remaining half to ¼-inch thickness. (Lightly flour top of dough if it sticks to rolling pin.) Using desired holiday cutters, cut dough, rerolling scraps as necessary. Using a small of set spatula, place cookies at least 1 inch apart on prepared pans.
- Bake, one batch at a time, until lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes. Using a large of set or flat metal spatula, remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire racks. Decorate cooled cookies as desired with Royal Icing.
These puffed and spread much more than I was expecting, which was a big disappointment because I used a variety of tree-shaped cutters to make some decorated cookies to include with gifts this Christmas and the trees lost their nice sharp points. The texture is still good at least, so it will be an enjoyable cookie to eat despite not looking as clean as desired. I can’t speak to the taste of the recipe on its own, as I used vanilla paste, maple extract, and cinnamon to give it some holiday flavor (which is delicious, but not sure how they would be if I had only done vanilla).
If I were to try this recipe again, I would chill the cut shapes before baking, but since this recipe emphasized that it didn’t need to be chilled I didn’t add that extra step. Maybe that would have helped prevent the spreading, but maybe not.
Hi DDae,
So sorry to hear about the spreading! One thing that will cause a cookie like this to spread more is if they are crowded on a cookie sheet. Not sure if this was the case, but just something to think about. Happy baking!
I have made these for Xmas as well as Easter now and did chill the dough each time before rolling. They held their shape beautifully and were delicious.
I made these cookies for Christmas. I really liked the way they turned out.
The cookies have a great taste. I also put them in the refrigerator over night before I rolled them.