Sugar cookies are a delight when it comes to desserts.
Especially during the Holiday season.
Let’s make some today with these easy steps.
Make sure you have your ingredients prepped before starting.
Here’s what you’ll need.
For the Cookie dough:
- 1 1/2 cups (350 grams) room temperature butter
- 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) white sugar
- 3 tbsp (45 grams) cream cheese
- 1 egg 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 ml) almond extract
- 1 tsp (5 ml) kosher salt
- 3 1/2 cups (420 grams) All Purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp (2.5 grams) baking powder
- 2 tsp (8 grams) cream of tartar
For the Royal Icing:
- 4 cups (480 grams) powdered sugar (sifted)
- Water (as needed)
- 1/2 tsp (3 grams) salt
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (62.5 ml) of pasteurized egg whites or (30 grams) of meringue powder
Let’s get started.
First is the dough.
You have to mix the room-temperature butter, sugar, and cream cheese for 5 mins.
This will give you perfectly creamed butter and sugar.
Next, add 1 egg, 2 egg yolks, and vanilla and almond extracts.
A small amount of almond can go a long way due to its powerful flavor.
Mix well until the cream and the recently added ingredients are well combined.
Add kosher salt, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and cream of tartar to the mix.
Fold and mix the dry ingredients together with the cream mixture until they are well combined.
Do not overmix.
When you achieved a well-combined mixture, place the dough into a cling film and use the film to pull the dough together.
This is an easier way to properly store it to avoid a huge mess.
Place the dough inside the fridge for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, start rolling dough.
Prepare the dough in batches so you can work on the first half while putting the other half back in the fridge.
Dust a worksurface with flour and put our dough on it.
Start by pressing it down with the rolling pin and roll it from top to bottom, then left to right.
Then make a quarter-turn with your dough and do the same until it’s spread out.
You can use a ruler to check the thickness, or use bottle caps (crowns) as they are nearly a quarter-inch in height.
Cut your desired shapes for cookies.
Dip the cutters first into the flour before putting them into the dough.
Bake the cookies at 350℉ (180℃) for 10-15mins.
Let them cool on a drying rack when done.
While baking, prepare the royal icing.
Mix the powdered sugar, pasteurized egg whites, salt, and vanilla extract.
It is best to put all the liquids to the side of the bowl so you can slowly incorporate more of the powdered sugar as you go.
The end result would be thick in consistency. You can add water to make it softer.
If you have multiple colors for decorating, place the royal icing into separate bowls and drop your desired colors.
You can then decorate your cookies using either dipping them into the colored icing or by using the flooding method where you use a piping bag.
Imagination is the only limit.
There’s always something magical about baking cookies.
It makes you feel the holidays and get into the spirit.
You know it’s that time of the year when you start baking these delicious cookies.
So share them with your family and friends and be merry this season.
Get the full tutorial for making the best sugar cookies in the video below!
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