Soft Christmas Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

My goal this month has been to bring you cookie recipes that I love to make around Christmas time. We started with these peanut butter blossoms and then these white chocolate cranberry cookies. Now we’re moving on to these delicious and easy Christmas Cut-Out Sugar Cookies.

This sugar cookie dough only takes about 10 minutes to mix together. And since there’s no dough chilling required, you can immediately roll out the dough, cut out your cookies, and bake them. Because let’s be honest, there’s nothing more frustrating than waiting 1-2 hours for cookie dough to chill. Especially when you have little ones who are more than ready to start decorating.

Soft Christmas Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Yield: 30 cookies
Prep Time: 25 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

•     1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened to room temperature
•     1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•     1 egg
•     1 cup sugar
•     1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
•     1/2 teaspoon salt
•     1 1/2 teaspoons. baking powder
•     3 cups flour

For the icing:

•     3 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar
•     1/4 teaspoon almond extract
•     6 Tablespoons warm water
•     3 Tablespoons meringue powder(I buy at Michael’s)

Directions:

For the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamed and smooth – about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 or 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on medium-high until fully combine, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
3. Whisk the flour, baking powder , and salt together in a medium bowl. Turn the mixer down to low and add about half of the flour mixture, beating until just barely combined. Add the rest of the flour and continue mixing until just combined. The dough will be soft.
4. Lay a piece of parchment paper on your counter as a work space. Flour parchment paper and dump dough onto paper. Flour top of dough and rolling pin. Gently roll out dough to 1/3-inch thickness or whatever thickness desired. The thicker the cookies the softer the cookies will be. Cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer to prepared baking sheet. All cookies will not fit on one baking sheet.
5. When one cookie sheet is full refrigerate for 5 minutes, then bake for 10 minutes. (Times may vary depending on thickness. Bake until edges start to turn golden brown.)
6. Repeat with remaining dough.

For the icing:

1. Add all icing ingredients and beat on high for 4-5 minutes, until smooth. If you want icing thicker add a little more sugar. If you need it thinner (flow consistency) add a little bit more water. Trial and error.
2. I put my icing into separate bowls and add food coloring(I prefer paste, from Michael’s) to make a variety of colors:)
3. Fill icing into bags or spread icing on cookies.

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