Soft Christmas Sugar Cookie Recipe

Tis the season for holiday baking! I love baking and making Christmas Sugar Cookie Cutouts is an annual tradition. It doesn't quite feel like Christmas until I have made tamales with my mom and baked Christmas cookies. My kids love helping, and are always excited when we start, but because we make so many I usually end up with two kiddos in the kitchen while two somehow disappear, working on a school project of course. My mom does remind me that growing up my siblings and I used to complain and quit early as well, but look now how it has become a favorite Christmas tradition. So I hope my boys will still want to bake and help their mom bake to give out treats when they are older. I came across a statement this year from Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons Facebook Page that said "Don't come at me with your little gift bag or Christmas tin, and be all "it's not much, but". Let me tell you something if you think enough of me to build, buy, make, bake, paint, craft, or grow something for me, out of 7 billion people, this one thing is just for ME. . .  that is MUCH! Let's not forget that this year when we say it's not much because the thoughtfulness to think of someone else IS MUCH!"

I couldn't agree more!

I hope you'll get in the kitchen and bake or cook with your kids over winter break, it is a great spot to talk, share and impart to them. It is also a lot of fun, put on Christmas music, bake, frost, and eat of course and yes, you will probably have a child disappear toward the end but hopefully, they will look back fondly on baking with mom and continue the tradition with their own children.

Ingredients:

3 1/4 Cups of Flour

1 Teaspoon of Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

1 Cup of Butter

1 1/2 Cups of White Sugar

2 Eggs

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla

Buttercream Icing Ingredients:

1/2 Cup of Butter (1 stick)

4 Cups of Powdered Sugar

1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

3 Tablespoons of Milk

 

Sugar Cookie Directions:

1. Combine your dry ingredients. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl.

2. In a separate bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy. Beat in one egg at a time. Add in vanilla. 

3. Gradually blend in the sifted ingredients until combined. 

4. Place in saran wrap and chill for at least two hours, I usually let it chill overnight. I like to flatten it a bit in the saran wrap, this makes it easy and ready to roll out when you take it out of the refrigerator after chilling. You want it to soften a bit but not too much, having it still a little cold helps it not to spread when baking. 

5. Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees, and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.

6. On a clean flat surface, sprinkle powdered sugar to roll out cookie dough, not flour. I like to leave them a little thick so they are soft and chewy, when they are thin you get a crispier cookie, still good, but not as good in my opinion.

7. Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes, until the edges are barely brown, let them cool slightly on the cookie sheet before transferring them to wire wracks to cool more. 

Buttercream Icing Directions:

Cream butter and powdered sugar. Add in Vanilla and Milk one Tablespoon at a time. If it is too thick add in a little more milk slowly to the consistency of your liking. 

I split the frosting into bowls and then add the food coloring. I use a combination of food coloring, I have gel food coloring, and liquid food coloring and love my Wilton Right Color set, but I usually end up using a little bit of everything to get the colors I want. 

This is my mother-in-law's buttercream frosting recipe and my kids absolutely love this frosting.

While I absolutely love the taste of this frosting it takes a little bit longer to set/dry to stack cookies. When we bake Christmas cookies we bake a ton to give to teachers, coaches, neighbors friends, and family. We made 65 buckets to give out this year that had a variety of homemade treats. This is why I usually in the past used a corn syrup icing recipe because it sets so much faster, but now that I have teenagers, my quick-setting icing has been voted out, we use Grandma's recipe. My teenagers still tell me, Grandmas' comes out better because it is made with love. If you could only see my eye roll.

I will share a video of this recipe on my TikTok and Instagram I'll have them pinned at the top if you like to watch video recipes. I often like to watch the recipe video and see the recipe in print form. 

I hope you and your family have a very Christmas, thank you for every bit of support of my blog, I truly appreciate every like, comment, and share.