Best Cut Out Sugar Cookie Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a bowl, stir together flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy and light. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, a third at a time to make a stiff dough. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Roll out a portion of cookie dough to 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters. Place on lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheets. Bake until lightly golden, about 10 minute, rotating baking sheet halfway through cooking time. Cool completely on pans about 5 minutes, transfer to cooling racks and cool completely before decorating.
• In a small bowl, mix sugar and water to form a thick, smooth icing. Stir in food coloring to reach desired shade. Drop icing onto cookies using a small teaspoon and smooth with the back of the spoon. Make additional bowls for additional colors.
• Additional multi-colored sprinkles can be added on top of icing before it dries for more decorative cookies, if desired.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and moving towards moussiness, then beat in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and eggs, and mix gently but surely. If you think the finished mixture is too sticky to be rolled out, add more flour, but do so sparingly as too much will make the dough tough. Form into a fat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place disk of dough on it, and sprinkle a little more flour on top of that. Then roll it out to a thickness of about 1/4-inch. Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the cookies a little apart on 2 parchment or silpat lined baking sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 12 minutes; obviously it depends on the shape you're using and whether they are on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after about 5 minutes. When they're ready expect them to be tinged a pronounced gold around the edges; they'll be softish still in the middle, but set while they cool.
• Remove the cookies with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack. When they are fully cooled, you can get on with the icing. Put a couple of tablespoons of not-quite-boiling water into a large bowl, add the sieved confectioners sugar and mix together, adding more water as you need to form a thick paste. Color,as desired. I think pastes are much better than liquid, not just because the range of colors is better but because they don't dilute the icing as they tint. Ice cooled cookies, as desired.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least one hour.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease cookie sheets, or line with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch in thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 1/2 inches apart onto cookie sheets.
• Bake for 6 to 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove cookies from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
• In a small bowl, beat the butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Mix in the milk one tablespoon at a time until a good spreading consistency is reached. Stir in food coloring to desired shade. Decorate cooled cookies, and set on waxed paper to harden.

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour and baking powder, stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the heavy cream. Cover dough, and chill for 2 to 3 hours, until firm.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired.
• Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until bottoms and edges of cookies are light brown. Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Steps:

• Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.

Steps:

• Sift together flour and baking powder in separate bowl.
• In second bowl, beat together sugar and egg until it becomes lemon-colored.
• Add butter, orange juice and vanilla.
• Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
• Slowly begin adding flour mixture (about 1/2 cup at a time) and blend; continue until all flour is used.
• Form into 2 flattened rectangles, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 1 hour.
• When ready to roll, set oven to 400 deg F.
• Cover baking sheets with parchment paper (can be reused from batch to batch).
• Sprinkle powdered sugar onto rolling surface as you would flour.
• Roll out one rectangle into desired thickness and cut out; place on baking sheet, making sure not to let cookies touch.
• Re-form scraps and roll again (may have to add more powdered sugar for rolling); continue until all dough is used.
• Once baking sheet is full, place into oven and set timer for 6 minutes.
• Depending on cookie thickness, baking time can range from 6-10 minutes, so check at the 6-minute mark to determine whether you need to bake longer.
• When light golden in color, remove cookies from baking sheet and place on cooling racks or flat surface covered with parchment.
• Cool to room temperature and frost with favorite frosting.
• If decorating, I recommend the following frosting (also appears in recipezaar under "Cutout Cookie Decorator Icing":.
• 1 cup confectioners sugar.
• 2 tsp milk.
• 2 tsp light corn syrup.
• 1/4 tsp vanilla.
• food coloring.

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
• Add sour cream, almond flavoring and dry ingredients.
• Chill.
• Roll out on lightly floured surface (use more flour as needed).
• Cut into desired shapes.
• Bake at 375 for 7-10 minutes till done.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
• Beat in the egg and vanilla.
• In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.
• Add the flour/baking powder mixture one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. (The dough will be very stiff; blend the last flour in by hand.).
• Do NOT chill the dough.
• Divide dough into 2 balls.
• On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 12 inches in diameter and 1/8 inch thick.
• Cut cookies into desired shapes, dipping cookie cutters in flour before each use.
• Decorate with gel and crystal sprinkle decorations, if desired.
• Bake on ungreased baking sheet on middle rack of oven for 6 to 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned.
• Cool 2 to 3 minutes before removing and cooling on a baking grid/cooling rack.
• You can sprinkle cocoa powder on the cookies if desired (looks good if you're making reindeer shaped cookies).
• Cookies may be frozen in a tightly sealed container for up to 2 months.

Steps:

• In a very large mixing bowl, beat the eggs.
• Add butter, sugar, evaporated milk and mix well.
• Add a tiny amount of water to the baking soda (just enough to stir) and add to the bowl.
• Sift flour and baking powder together; blend gradually into cookie mixture.
• Chill until easily handled.
• Grease and flour cookie sheets.
• Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness and cut into desired shapes.
• Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes.
• Remove to wire racks to cool.
• Ice cooled cookies Icing: Sift powdered sugar into a bowl.
• Add evaporated milk and vanilla, mix well.
• Add food color if desired.

Steps:

• For cookies; in a large bowl combine butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract; beat using an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy.
• In another bowl combine the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt; gradually stir into the butter mixture until well blended.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
• Set oven to 400°F.
• Line cookie sheets with parchment paper (do not grease cookie sheets use parchment paper only).
• On a very lightly floured surface roll out the dough into about 1/4-inch thickness.
• Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters.
• Place cookies 2-inches apart on cookie sheet.
• Bake 4-6 minutes.
• Remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely before icing.
• For the frosting; in a small bowl mix the confectioners sugar with milk (start with 1-2 tablespoons, you will likely need more milk for the perfect spreading consistency).
• Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until the icing is smooth and glossy (if the icing is too thick add in a small amount more of corn syrup).
• Divide into as many separate bowls as you wish for different colours.
• Add in food colouring until desired intensity is achieved.
• Paint the icing over the cookies using a brush, or dip edges of cookies into icing.
• Allow to set on waxed paper.