My Favorite Sugar Cookie Dough

By sandiB2010

This was once my "secret recipe" for Sugar Cookies. I'm not very good at secrets, and it's much more fun to share anyway.

Ingredients

• 3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Details

Servings 4
Adapted from sprinklebakes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Dough:
In a mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined. Add vanilla. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl. On low speed, gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture. Dough will be very stiff. Wrap or cover dough and refrigerate overnight.

Baking:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, knead dough a few times. This will help cut-outs keep their shape while baking. Roll out dough to 1/4" to 1/2" thickness while it is still cold. Use cookie cutters for desired shapes. Bake for 7-9 minutes, depending on thickness of dough. Cool completely.

Tips and Tricks:

•This dough should be kneaded a little after chilling. Incorporating just a bit more flour into the dough helps the cookies hold their cut shape. You still want your snowflake to look like a snowflake, and not bake into a blob. This will help.

•Cut the dough in two after chilling. Work with one portion and leave the other portion in the refrigerator to stay cold. This will also help with the shape issue.

•The softened butter should still be just a little cool to the touch, and not completely room temperature. Warm, or room temperature butter will make your dough extremely sticky. It's a bit harder to work with.

•Bake on parchment paper. It makes life so much easier in the long-run. No sticking, easier clean up... it's something that I can't live without.