Decorating Sugar Cookies for Christmas

When Mini Eats was almost three, I thought that might be the year to start a tradition of decorating cookies. We were incorrect. I was ready, of course, but the little one wasn't quite sold on the concept of putting decorations on cookies without eating either of them.

The real news here, though is that this recipe is fantastic. My mom has a good recipe, but her cookies have always been crisp and crumbly (as she likes them). But I like a soft cookie. Searching the internet or even my books didn't seem like the right idea; for whatever reason, this detail is often omitted from descriptions. I need the cookie to be tasty and soft but also able to stand up to decorating. So I consulted Twitter, and--luckily for me--Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil responded with this sugar cookie recipe from Bake at 350. That's really all the endorsement I needed. I made the dough, rolled it out and made these wonderful cookies. They're perfect. They taste fantastic and are soft, but maintain their shape very well.

Normally, I would post the recipe, but I didn't make any changes to it and I have nothing to add (update: recipe follows)! I will say that this makes a lot of cookies. I'm not sure how many, exactly because I still have one-third? one-fourth? of the dough left in the freezer! Probably four or five dozen 3-4" cookies. And I didn't freeze my shapes and they turned out great. Click on over to her blog to get the recipe: http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2008/04/taste-of-yellow-yellow-rose-sugar.html.

Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar 
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold & cut into chunks
1 egg (or egg replacer, such as chia or flax seed)
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling.

Roll on a floured surface to about 1/4" to 3/8" thick, and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.