Description
Classic Christmas sugar cookies with a soft vanilla flavor and a tender, buttery texture. Perfectly shaped with your favorite cookie cutters and decorated with icing, chocolate, or a dusting of sugar. These festive biscuits are ideal for holiday celebrations and make a delightful treat to share or gift.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (or use salted, skip salt)
- 1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar okay too)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
- 3 cups plain / all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
Decoration
- Icing for Sugar Cookies (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper to prevent sticking.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together until creamy and smooth, about 1 minute at medium speed.
- Add Egg and Vanilla: Mix in the large egg and vanilla extract until fully combined and the mixture is smooth.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: Add the flour, baking powder, and salt to the wet mixture. Begin mixing slowly, then increase speed until the flour is incorporated. The dough may appear clumpy—this is normal.
- Prepare Dough for Rolling: Dust your work surface with flour. Scrape out the dough onto the surface, pat it together, divide it in half, and shape each half into a disc.
- Roll Out Dough: Roll each disc out to 0.3cm / 1/8" thickness for thinner, crispier cookies, or 0.6cm / 1/4" for thicker, softer cookies. Lightly sprinkle flour underneath and over the dough to prevent sticking.
- Cut and Transfer Shapes: Use cookie cutters to press out shapes. Use a knife or spatula to transfer the cut cookies onto the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate any leftover dough pieces.
- Bake Cookies: Place both baking sheets in the oven simultaneously, positioning one on the middle rack and one on the rack below. Bake for 10 minutes, swapping the trays halfway through to ensure even baking, until the cookies are pale golden on top and edges start turning light golden.
- Cool Cookies: Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking trays; they will finish cooking as they cool.
- Decorate and Serve: Decorate as desired with icing, melted chocolate, silver balls, or dust with icing sugar. Alternatively, enjoy plain for a classic vanilla biscuit flavor.
Notes
- The number of cookies depends on the size of cookie cutters and thickness of rolled dough. This recipe fills about 3 baking trays.
- Swapping baking trays halfway during baking helps cookies bake evenly because the top oven shelf bakes faster than the lower one.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to one week. After that, they may begin to dry out slightly but are still tasty.
- For icing, use a sugar cookie icing recipe or melted chocolate to customize your decorations.
- If using salted butter, omit adding extra salt to the dough.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 110 kcal
- Sugar: 7 g
- Sodium: 65 mg
- Fat: 5 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 15 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1 g
- Cholesterol: 20 mg
