Sugar Cookies

Tasty vanilla cookies cut into all kinds of fun shapes and decorated with royal icing.

Think all cut-out sugar cookie recipes are hard and take a lot of time? Well, not this recipe. This recipe is really easy and is quick to make too. The only part that does take a while if you aren’t an artist like us is the decorating part.

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Whenever the thought of cut-out cookies came up we would shrug and complain that they are just too hard to make. We tried years ago to make cutout sugar cookies and they came out horrible. They were supposed to look like snowflakes but they ended up turning into blobs. But because we have been wanting to challenge ourselves a little bit more with recipes we decided that we would try cut-out sugar cookies for the holiday season.

We are glad that we gave them another try. We had so much They were so fun to make.

For this recipe, there is no dough chilling involved so you can get these cookies all cut out and ready to bake in no time.

Ready to make some cookies? Okay well get your apron ready and let’s go.

The ingredients you will need:

• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Nutmeg
• Vanilla extract
• Almond extract
• One Egg
• Baking Powder

For the icing:

• Powdered sugar
• Milk
• Corn syrup
• Vanilla extract

The only tools you will need are:

• Baking sheet
• Cookie cutters
• Piping bags
• Wilton #2 skinny piping tip
• Gel food coloring. We used red gel food coloring since we used the stocking cookie cutter but you use whatever colors you want.

Steps to make the cookie dough:

The first step is to whisk the flour, baking powder, and nutmeg in a medium-sized bowl then set that aside.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar together. After that add the egg, vanilla and almond extract mix until everything is combined.  Then slowly add in the flour mixture.

Don’t be afraid if the dough looks crumbly. It is supposed to look like that. It will start to come together when you knead it.

Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out in a rectangle until it is about ¼” thick.

Cut into whatever shape you want a place on a silicone mat lined baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Then prepare the icing and decorate.

A few tips:

• Make sure that the dough doesn’t get too warm. This will make it difficult to work with. If it does get too warm place in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes.
• Make sure the cookies are fully cooled before decorating.
• Prepare the icing right before you are about to decorate. You don’t want the icing to get hard and dry before you even had a chance to decorate. That is why it is always best to make right before you start decorating.
• Have leftover dough? Gather up all the leftover pieces and roll them into a disk and cut out more shapes.
• Don’t want to eat all those cookies at once? You can freeze the unbaked cookie dough for up to one month. Just be sure to cut them into the shape you want before freezing them. Place in a single layer in an airtight container. Once you are ready to eat them just place on a cookie sheet and bake them like you regularly would.

We hope you enjoy this recipe. Remember you don’t have to be an artist when it comes to cookie decorating. The only thing that matters is that you have fun with it.

We hope you all enjoy it! If you make this Cut-out Sugar Cookie recipe be sure to tag us on Instagram @wonderandcharm or use the hashtag #wonderandcharm. We would love to see your photos.

Looking for more cookie recipes? You can find them here.