Tender Sugar Cookies

I'll go into a slightly longer post than normal.. so I love Christmas baking, and I love to space out our goodies so that we can enjoy the different options throughout the season without too much of a sugar load or ending up with too many leftovers. I used to do just our one staple recipe, then when my kids got older I started looking at other recipes and choosing a few new ones to try each December.

Every Christmas Eve I make this particular sugar cookie recipe. This year will be year number 9-- which is crazy! It's officially a long standing tradition, and I'm officially old. I love it.

Last year we added shortbread varieties to our Christmas staples, and this year we're going to be trying Peppermint Bark (a much older Christmas tradition I kept for 2-3 years, then stopped), cream cheese mints, double chocolate peppermint cookies, truffle varieties.. and chocolate Babka for Christmas Morning breakfast. Those recipes will be coming when I have more time (:

Anyway, back to the sugar cookies. I don't know how to accurately describe them, but I'll try: Buttery without being a butter cookie, perfectly smooth flavor, beautiful tender texture. The recipe specifically says to not let them brown, but I honestly really really love having a few browned sugar cookies just for me, and these work for that too! They're always a big hit when we share them, so we make at least 2-4 batches each season.

Anyway, these cookies are perfect for baking normally, rolling in sugar or colored sugar for a festive look, dyeing the dough (which we did until I stopped using artificial dyes..), or rolling and making cut outs! We make them for Valentine's Day sometimes, too.

Here is the link to print the recipe, and the recipe is also typed below. Enjoy!

Tender Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 300˚

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup butter, softened

• 1 Cup sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• ¼ tsp salt

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 ¼ Cups flour

Directions:

1. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.

3. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.

4. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with mixer. Stir in any remaining flour by hand.

5. If necessary cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or until dough is easy to handle.

6. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, roll in sugar or colored sugar (optional) and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet OR roll dough to desired thickness and cut out shapes.

7. Bake cookies for about 15 min, or until tops are slightly crackled and sides are set (do not let the edges brown) *You will need to watch cut outs and adjust the baking time(s) accordingly. 

8. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.