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Every EOE (Eve of Eve) or Christmas Eve Eve as we call it around here we make our traditional sugar cookies! This is the best recipe and makes the softest, fluffiest sugar cookies. Seriously, if there happens to be any left a week later they are still super soft! I was never a huge fan of most sugar cookies because they can get crunchy, but I LOVE these and we all look forward to them every year. Then on Christmas Eve morning we have our traditional family cookie decorating. This recipe makes a lot so it gives everyone plenty of cookies to decorate!
To start, cream butter in your electric mixer. Work in sugar and add in eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. With the mixer running on low add in half of the flour mixture, sour cream, and then the remainder of the flour mixture. Chill the dough 2-3 hours.
When your dough is ready, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. On a floured surface roll out half the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. I just think it is easier to work with half the dough at a time. This is where the kids love to help! Assemble all your cookie cutters and let them cut out the shapes. Place your shapes on a cookie sheet and then bake for 8-10 min. Let them sit on the cookie sheet a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. I have been baking on stoneware for as long as I have been married and I love it! The cookies cook so evenly, don’t burn, and just seem to taste much better. I only have 2 stoneware pans, a rectangular stone and a round pizza stone. Once, to save time when baking cookies, I made 2 batches with my stoneware pans, and switched to metal pans for the rest so I could just get all the cookies ready to go in the oven on cookie sheets and not have to wait for my stoneware to be out of the oven. Big mistake! The ones on the metal pan burned on the bottom and were all hard and crunchy and I had to throw them away. Get the stoneware, it is totally worth it!
When you are ready to frost your cookies go ahead and make up your frosting. In mixer cream your butter until fluffy. Then add about half of the powdered sugar. Add in milk and vanilla. Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed. Then I divide my frosting into bowls and I add food coloring. I always leave one white. Depending on how many colors you want to do you may need to double the frosting. As I mentioned above we frost our cookies the next day when they are cooled. If you like your frosting to be more like a thin glaze use more milk and frost the cookies while they are still hot. I like a thicker frosting so we are fine to wait until the next day to decorate. This is so fun to do as a family and we all have fun decorating our cookies!
- Cookies
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup sour cream
- Frosting
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- milk (1½ tablespoons for thicker frosting and more to thin it out if you want)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Cream butter in an electric mixer.
- Work in sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
- With the mixer on low add in half of the flour mixture, your sour cream, and then the rest of your flour mixture.
- Chill dough in the refrigerator 2-3 hours.
- When your dough is ready preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- On a floured surface roll out half the dough at a time and cut into shapes.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes.
- Let stand on the cookie sheet a few minutes and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.
- For the frosting cream your butter in an electric mixer until fluffy.
- Add about half of the powdered sugar.
- Beat in milk and vanilla.
- Slowly add in the rest of the powdered sugar and add more milk if needed.
- Divide frosting into separate bowls and add food coloring.
jf214568 says
Hello,
I have been looking for a sugar cookie recipe. I don’t usually frost my cookies and we just like to decorate with colored sugar, do you think these are sweet enough on their own without the frosting?
Jen says
Hi! Yes I think they are so good without even being frosted. My favorite ones are actually the ones with less frosting, sometimes the little kids put hardly any on, so I think they will be just fine with the colored sugar. I hope you like them!
Jen
Miz Helen says
There is nothing like a great sugar cookies for the holidays, these look fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing your awesome recipe with us at Full Plate Thursday! Hope you are having a wonderful week and hope to see you soon!
Miz Helen