Soft & Colorful Sugar Cookies

Why should Christmas get to have all the sugar cookie fun?

For the longest time, I thought of sugar cookies as Christmas cookies. I had really only ever made or decorated them at Christmas with my family. But the first time I made them on my own, it was for a Halloween party. I had purchased 101 cookie cutters a couple months earlier and didn’t want to wait another couple months to play with them. Halloween was a perfect excuse.

Then I remembered something. I hated nearly all of the sugar cookies I had eaten. They were always too bland, too sweet, and/or too hard. It seems that people are either fans of crunchy cookies or soft cookies. I am a soft cookie fan. With few exceptions, if I want something crunchy, I’ll have a cracker or a chip. So here is my go-to recipe for a soft, buttery and not-too-sweet sugar cookie. The cookie is good by itself and a perfect canvas for buttercream frosting decorations and colorful sprinkles.

Soft & Buttery Sugar Cookies
Makes approximately 3 dozen, 3-4″ cookies

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Directions
1. Sift flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg, then vanilla and almond extracts. Add dry flour mixture and mix until just combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
3. Preheat oven to 375°. On a floured surface, roll cookie dough to about 1/8 inch. Cut into desired shapes. Bake until bottoms are lightly browned, approximately 8 minutes.
4. Let cool completely, then decorate with buttercream frosting. Enjoy!

My sugar cookie setup in my teeny apartment kitchen

My thoughts & suggestions:

• This recipe uses very simple ingredients, and you can really taste all of them in the cookies. For this reason, I strongly recommend using the exact ingredients called for – no imitation vanilla or almond extracts, and certainly no margarine. Yes, extracts can get expensive. But you use so little of them in most recipes that it’s completely worth it to shell out a few extra dollars.
• The dough and frosting are both a little picky. If the dough gets too warm or soft, it gets sticky and doesn’t take cookie cutter shapes as nicely. If the frosting gets too warm, it will not pipe very precisely. Try to keep both as cool as possible. I like to work with the dough in small batches and keep the remainder in the refrigerator.

Recipe Source: I’ve been told these cookies taste exactly like the ones my great grandma used to make. While I’d love to be able to credit her, I originally found this recipe on Talk of Tomatoes. With the exception of doubling the amount almond extract called for, I still follow it to the letter.