Christmas Sugar Cookie

By dkanon

These sugar cookies are the best for Christmas decorating and they taste great! Not to crispy, not to chewy, the perfect texture lies somewhere in the middle, soft but with a little resistance. So grab the kids and have fun decorating them with simple royal icing and sprinkles... if they don't get eaten first.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 extra large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 7 1/2 ounces all purpose flour (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from fifteenspatulas.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cream together the butter and sugar with a mixer (read my creaming article if you need a review on how to do it properly). Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, and beat until blended.

In a bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar and beat just until the flour disappears. Scrape the dough out into plastic wrap. The dough may look slightly crumbly, but it should come together well as you shape it into a disk. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Flour your countertop, and roll the dough out to the desired thickness (I do somewhere between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch thick). Cut the dough with your cutters and place on your baking sheet (no need to grease the pan or use parchment if you don't want to). Refrigerate for 20 minutes, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake for 10 minutes until very faintly golden brown on the edges. Cool on a wire rack completely before decorating.