This Christmas Sugar Cookies recipe makes good cut-out sugar cookies for the vacations! They’re tender, scrumptious, and preserve their form!! When my pal, Kaye, shared her recipe for these Simple Sugar Cookies, I knew I had discovered a keeper.
Embellished Sugar Cookies are good for the vacations, because the shapes and frosting colours could be adjusted as wanted. And don’t neglect the sprinkles to make your Frosted Cookies additional festive.

Why You Should Make
- My household goes nuts for the candy, buttery cookies that bake up utilizing this recipe.
- No want for piping baggage or any specialty objects to frost these. Simply use a small knife or an offset spatula. It makes cookie adorning stress-free.
- These vacation cookies preserve their form after they’re baked.
- Including cream cheese to the dough contributes additional fats which makes for delicate, tender cookies.
- They can be utilized for any vacation and any event. I’ve adorned them to appear like basketballs, pink hearts, shamrocks, and extra.

Ingredient Notes
- Kitchen Staples – Sugar, Flour
- Butter – Have at room temperature for simple incorporation.
- Cream Cheese – At room temperature for simple mixing. Provides extra fats to the dough making for tender cookies.
- Egg – At room temperature for simple incorporation
- Vanilla Extract – Search for actual vanilla extract by no means artificially flavored. I just like the Nielsen-Massey model.
- Baking Powder – That is not the identical as baking soda. Baking powder typically expires earlier than you need to use all of it. To verify its efficiency, put a spoonful in a cup of scorching water. Whether it is energetic, it ought to bubble vigorously. If it doesn’t, exchange it earlier than beginning this recipe.
- Powdered Sugar – Sift for easy frosting.
- Milk – I exploit 2%, however any complete milk will work, too.
- Corn Syrup – Use mild corn syrup.
- Almond Extract – In case you don’t prefer it, use ½ vanilla in your frosting.
- Meals Coloring – For the frosting. Varies relying on the event.

The right way to Make








The right way to Beautify
- My adorning abilities are a bit restricted, however I prefer to tint this Christmas cookie icing and unfold it on with an offset spatula. A number of sprinkles make them additional festive.
- You can too make a batch of royal icing, and use that to pipe a top level view alongside the sting of the cookie, and flood” the center with extra icing that’s skinny sufficient to simply unfold throughout the floor. However I choose the simpler methodology for these frosted Christmas cookies.
- Earlier than the frosting has an opportunity to dry (it doesn’t matter what recipe you utilize), add your favourite sprinkles or coloured sugars to embellish.
- I like utilizing a primary Christmas tree cookie cutter because it’s a easy form to embellish.
- These simple sugar cookies are beloved by the complete household—and that doesn’t occur too typically round right here!

Knowledgeable Ideas:
- This gained a sugar cookie style take a look at amongst my girlfriends. We even tasted the dough and the better-tasting dough didn’t make the perfect sugar cookies.
- Use the highest quality substances for the perfect outcomes. Model-name butter and even European butter, Philadelphia cream cheese, and actual vanilla extract are key. Look ahead to gross sales across the holidays and replenish.
- PRO-Tip: Observe that generic and store-brand butter typically have a better proportion of water than the costlier manufacturers and have a tendency to unfold extra when baked.
- PRO-Tip: Have your butter, eggs, and cream cheese at room temperature for simpler incorporation.
- Roll your cookies out with a minimal quantity of flour so your cookies don’t get robust.
- Alternatively, use powdered sugar to roll out your cookies to keep away from including additional gluten.
- Use a big Silpat Roul’Pat to roll out your dough for simple cleanup.
- PRO-Tip: Roll cookies to a thickness of roughly ⅛ inch. You can also make them thinner for a crisper cookie or thicker for a chewier cookie (you can even use a thicker cookie for a Christmas tree decoration. Simply make a good-sized gap on the prime of your cookie earlier than baking and reopen as wanted once they come out of the oven).
- Baking for a little bit longer offers you a crispy cookie and underbaking barely offers you a softer cookie.
- Bake your cookies on Parchment Paper Baking Sheets for simple cleanup. You possibly can reuse your parchment for various batches.
- PRO-Tip: In case your dough begins sticking to your cookie cutter, dip the cutter in a little bit of flour earlier than utilizing it. Re-chilling the dough will even assist.
- PRO-Tip: Maintain the dough chilly so your cookies preserve their form. Refrigerate any leftover dough earlier than reusing. You may additionally put your baking sheet filled with unbaked cookies within the fridge to rechill the dough for about 10 minutes if wanted earlier than baking.
- Cool the sugar cookies utterly earlier than frosting them.
- The icing is a riff on royal icing. It’s shiny however doesn’t contain both egg whites or piping (which is way from my robust go well with!). It does include corn syrup which makes the icing shiny.
- PRO-Tip: In case you don’t like to make use of corn syrup, go forward and add a little bit extra milk and even some heavy cream to skinny the frosting. The outcomes gained’t be as shiny, however they’ll nonetheless be scrumptious!!
- Mud with sprinkles whereas the frosting continues to be moist so that they adhere. Place on a rack to dry till the frosting hardens.
- Place the newly frosted sugar cookies on a cooling rack over a baking sheet, then garnish with sprinkles. The surplus sprinkles will fall by means of the rack onto the baking sheet. Acquire and reuse the leftover sprinkles if desired.
Continuously Requested Questions
Including additional fats, like an egg yolk, or as on this recipe, some cream cheese, will assist make softer cookies. Not over-baking is essential as nicely.
Use actual butter, not shortening or margarine. Add a very good high quality vanilla extract, however you can even add a small quantity of almond or lemon extract as well as for a taste increase.
Sure, they freeze nicely. It’s finest to freeze unfrosted sugar cookies in an hermetic container for as much as 3 months. Defrost, frost, and adorn near the vacations.
In case you freeze frosted cookies, you threat the sprinkles bleeding when the cookies defrost. To attenuate that, freeze frosted cookies in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. When frozen, stack them in an hermetic container with parchment paper separating the layers. Defrost within the fridge earlier than consuming or giving as items.
Freshly baked sugar cookies style finest if eaten inside 3-4 days. Unfrosted cookies, when saved correctly, will freeze nicely for as much as 3 months.
Moreover including sweetness, corn syrup provides a shiny end to the frosting with out making royal icing.
In case your selfmade sugar cookies shall be frosted, add the sprinkles to the freshly frosted cookies. In case you’d like so as to add sprinkles earlier than baking, sprinkle them on prime of every unbaked cookie on the cookie sheet, and apply mild stress to assist them adhere.
Sprinkles do have expiration dates and may style rancid in the event that they’re nicely previous their prime. So, you probably have sprinkles lingering in your kitchen, give them a sniff after which style them in the event you suspect they might be outdated.
Rancid sprinkles will spoil a cookie recipe. Because of my pal, Sue, the blogger behind The View from Nice Island, for alerting me to this chance.

The instruments listed under have been used to make and frost a batch of those vacation cookies. All of them labored superbly. All affiliate hyperlinks.
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Observe: I obtained an assortment of Wilton instruments for making Christmas cookies. I used them to make a batch of this sugar cookie recipe however was not compensated for doing so. The cookie cutters and enormous cookie spatula have been featured in my course of photographs above. All opinions are mine alone.
Elements
Cookie Dough:
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- 3 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Frosting (I normally double this):
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup (makes the frosting shiny)
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- Meals coloring of your selection
Directions
- Cream the butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a big bowl till mild and fluffy.
- Beat within the egg and vanilla. Add flour and baking powder and stir until mixed.
- Put dough on a big piece of plastic wrap and flatten it right into a disk. Wrap nicely and chill for no less than an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375º.
- On a floured floor, roll out half of the dough to ⅛-¼ inch thickness. Maintain the opposite half refrigerated till wanted.
- Utilizing cookie cutters of your selection, reduce and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet no less than an inch aside.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes until cookies begin to brown on the sides and are agency.
- Cool for a few minutes, then take away the cookies to a cooling rack.
- To make the frosting, whisk collectively all substances. Begin with a tablespoon of milk and add a bit extra milk and/or corn syrup to skinny it if wanted.
Notes
Complete time doesn’t embrace chilling time.
Advisable Merchandise
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Diet Info:
Yield:
36
Serving Dimension:
1 cookie
Quantity Per Serving:
Energy: 94Complete Fats: 4gSaturated Fats: 2gTrans Fats: 0gUnsaturated Fats: 1gLdl cholesterol: 14mgSodium: 37mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 0gSugar: 9gProtein: 1g

