These are my favorite sugar cookies! This recipe makes a simple, versatile vanilla sugar cookie; the dough is easy to roll and to work with and doesn’t spread when baking, so your cookies will always have sharp, defined edges! You can decorate these cookies with sanding sugar, or you can use my recipe below for a simple (and tasty!) pipeable vanilla sugar cookie frosting.
This is just a friendly reminder that Christmas is officially less than one month away, so if you aren’t freaking out yet about not having all of your Christmas shopping done, or even started, now is the time to start freaking out.
Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting
This is a great and easy recipe for Sugar Cookies and a sugar cookie frosting.
votesook Time: 10 minutesTotal Time: 1 hour 10 minutes Servings: 40 cookies* Calories: 75kcal
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
1 cup sugar (200g)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract**
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (315g)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Sugar Cookie Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)
3-4 Tablespoons milk
2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Gel food coloring optional
Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating optional
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer) and beat until creamy and well-combined.
Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.
In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that's OK!).
Cover with clear wrap and mold into a disk. Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours3
Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Generously dust a clean surface with flour and deposit one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies). Continue to add flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn't stick.
Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet.4
Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes5, or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.
If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).
Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
Allow frosting to harden before enjoying (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting)
Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.
