Sugar Cookies with Icing

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened

• 1 cup granulated sugar

• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 large egg

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

• ¾ teaspoon baking powder

• ¾ teaspoon table salt

Sugar Cookie Frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar

• 3-4 tablespoons milk

• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup

• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

• Gel food colouring and sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

Sugar Cookies

• Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until creamy and well-combined.

• Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.

• In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually stir dry ingredients into wet until dough is smooth and completely combined.

• Lay out two large pieces of plastic wrap and put half of the dough on each piece. Wrap well and refrigerate for 2-3 hours (or up to 5 days).

• After dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or bake cookies directly on an ungreased baking sheet).

• Generously dust a clean surface with flour and place one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to ⅛" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or ¼" (for thicker, softer cookies). Add additional flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn't stick.

• Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet, spacing at least 1" apart.

• Bake on 350F for 8-10 minutes (smaller cookies will need less time and larger cookies will need more) until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.

• Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before decorating.

Easy Sugar Cookie Icing

• Combine powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined.

• If coloring the icing, divide into bowls and colour as desired at this point.

• Put icing on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.

• Allow frosting to harden before enjoying, stacking, or storing.

Piping note: If you want to pipe your icing, it needs to be thick. but pipeable. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is the desired consistency. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached. Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (likeWilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).  

Recipe modified from https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-sugar-cookie-recipe/

Prep Time: 1 hour Cook Time: 10 minutes Chilling Time: 2 hours Total Time: 3 hours
Servings: 40 sugar cookies