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4.8 from 24 votes

Holiday Sugar Cookies

Learn to make tender crisp delicious sugar cookies - a perfect blank slate for decorating. Includes tutorials for royal icing and decorating.

Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
40 mins
Servings: 24 servings
Calories: 274 kcal
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature (3 sticks)
  • 4 large eggs (room temperature)
  • 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 5 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Slice the butter into tablespoon-sized pieces and put them in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Add the sugar.
  3. Cream together the butter and sugar for a few minutes till the sugar is fully incorporated and mixture is fluffy.
  4. Beat in the eggs, almond extract and vanilla extract with an electric mixer till creamy.
  5. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt with a wooden spoon or spatula till a sugary dough forms. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hour, up to overnight.
  6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Flour a rolling surface generously. Place a quarter of the cookie dough in the flour, then flip it and coat the opposite side with flour.
  7. Re-flour the surface below the dough and begin rolling it out with a lightly floured rolling pin. You want to roll the dough ¼ inch to ½ inch thick. ¼ inch will produce thinner, crisper cookies and more cookies; ½ inch will produce fewer cookies with a softer texture.
  8. Flip the dough once halfway through rolling, and keep the surface floured as you roll. The dough is quite sticky; keeping the surface and rolling pin floured will produce smoother results.
  9. When dough is at the desired thickness, use cookie cutters to cut shapes in the dough. In this tutorial I used Star of David and dreidel cookie cutters for Hanukkah (links in the blog above), but any shape—even plain, circular—can be used.
  10. Pull the excess dough trimmings from the cookies and reserve.
  11. Lift the cookies from the rolling surface and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, spaced 1 inch apart.If any of the cookies stick to the rolling surface, use a pastry scraper to gently loosen the cookie and lift it.
  12. Re-roll out trimmings to make new cookies. When trimmings are small, add them to the next quarter of dough.Bake the cookies in batches for 6-8 minutes per batch till they just start to turn golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
  13. Continue rolling out the cookies and baking in batches, a quarter of the dough at a time plus trimmings, till all of the dough is used. The amount of cookies will vary based on how large your cookie cutters are, and how thin you choose to roll out the dough.
  14. Make sure the cookies cool completely before icing.

Nutrition Information

Calories 274kcal (14%) Carbohydrates 36g (12%) Protein 3g (6%) Fat 12g (18%) Saturated Fat 7g (35%) Cholesterol 61mg (20%) Sodium 111mg (5%) Potassium 84mg (2%) Sugar 16g (32%) Vitamin A 400IU (8%) Calcium 30mg (3%) Iron 1.4mg (8%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 24servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 274

% Daily Value*

Calories 274kcal 14%
Carbohydrates 36g 12%
Protein 3g 6%
Fat 12g 18%
Saturated Fat 7g 35%
Cholesterol 61mg 20%
Sodium 111mg 5%
Potassium 84mg 2%
Sugar 16g 32%
Vitamin A 400IU 8%
Calcium 30mg 3%
Iron 1.4mg 8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.