Holiday baking season is finally here!
Baking is fun anytime of year, but there’s something special about all of the cookie swaps, snowflake/christmas tree/candy cane shaped cookies and everyone coming together to make a floury, sticky-frosting mess in the kitchen during the holidays.
I love making these pillowy sugar cookies.
Sugar cookies have found themselves to be a predominantly “holiday” cookie, but you can switch up the flavours with different extracts (I like peppermint, almond and lemon), making them ideal for baking anytime of year.
These cookies are so easy. The dough comes together in no time then you just refrigerate it for a while, roll it out, cut shapes and bake them.
Then, it’s time to decorate! I like to use royal icing to decorate these because it’s pretty versatile. You can make it thicker to pipe outlines on cookies or loosen it up and “flood” your cookies to make fun designs which is what you normally see.
Sprinkles, pearls, mini chocolate chips, coloured sugar and crushed candy canes are a must for your decorating needs. Put it on while your icing is still setting and they’ll stick on perfectly!
You’ll get a lot of cookies out of this batch of dough. Feel free to freeze it for later if you don’t want to make too many at one time. 🙂
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
Royal Icing:
- 3 ounces pasteurized egg whites
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough onto a floured surface 1/4-1/2″ thick. Cut into shapes.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool completely, then decorate.
- In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners’ sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. (If you want to thin out your icing, add a little water until it reaches your desired consistency).
- Finish decorating with any sprinkles, etc. you want. Enjoy!
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