Every year I make a sugar cookie for Christmas but I usually cheat and buy a pre-made dough mix. Not this year. Nope. I was going to bake from scratch and these Christmas sugar cookies turned out delicious and pretty as they held their cut-out shape.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
In a mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Remove dough from the mixing bowl and place on plastic wrap in a ball. Chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll out 1/4 of the dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets.
Bake 8-10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Tip: The longer the dough chills, the better. Only work with 1/4 of the batter at a time to prevent it from becoming room temperature which causes the dough to be sticky. I also roll out the dough in between two pieces of parchment paper to avoid additional flour getting on top of the cookie dough. These cookies are soft so if you prefer your sugar cookies a bit crisper, leave them in the oven a minute longer.
These Christmas sugar cookies are ready to decorate for Santa!