Sugar Cookies & Frosting

This is a great and easy recipe for Sugar Cookies and a sugar cookie frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword christmas cookies, easy sugar cookie recipe, sugar cookie frosting, sugar cookie icing, sugar cookie recipe, sugar cookies

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 10 minutes

Chilling Time 2 hours

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Servings 40 cookies¹

Calories 130kcal

Author Sam Merritt

Equipment

• Kitchen Scale (recommended but not required)

• Gel food coloring (these are the ones I use to color my sugar cookie icing)

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract²
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (315g)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Sugar Cookie Frosting

• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)
• 3-4 Tablespoons milk
• 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Gel food coloring optional
• Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating optional

Instructions

Sugar Cookies

• Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand 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 add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.

• Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that's OK!).

• Cover with clear wrap and mold into a disk.  Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap.  Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours3

• Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Set aside.

• Generously dust a clean surface with flour and deposit one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface.  Lightly flour the dough and roll out to 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies).  Continue to add 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.4 

• Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes5, or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.

• Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.

Sugar Cookie Frosting

• Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.  

• If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.

• Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 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).  

• Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.

• Allow frosting to harden before enjoying (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting)

• Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.  

Notes

¹Yield varies greatly depending both on how thick you roll the dough and the size of the cookie cutters that you use.  This recipe can be doubled.

²You may also cut the vanilla extract down to 3/4 teaspoon and add 1/4-1/2 teaspoons of either almond or lemon extract (or just about any other extract you'd like!)

³ You may chill this dough longer, overnight or even up to several days.  If the dough is too firm to roll out and starts to crack, let it rest at room temperature for about 10-15 minutes before continuing to roll.

⁴If you don't intend to frost your cookies, then you can just sprinkle them with sanding sugar for decoration at this point.

⁵My cookie cutters were about 3" in length, if you're using smaller cookie cutters you will need to bake for less time, keep an eye on the edges of your cookies to know when they are done.

I like to use Americolor gel food colorings. This kit (affiliate) includes the "Red Red" and "Leaf Green" colors that I used

Full-Length Video:

I shared a quick, short video for how to make this sugar cookie recipe in today's post. If you prefer my longer, more detailed videos, please check out the detailed video I made for my YouTube channel.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie (approximate, this will vary depending on size of your cookie cutters) | Calories: 130kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 48mg | Potassium: 21mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 151IU | Calcium: 8mg | Iron: 1mg

Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-sugar-cookie-recipe/ Find more great recipes at SugarSpunRun.com!