Frosted Holiday Sugar Cookies
Updated Aug. 24, 2022
- Total Time
- 40 minutes, plus chilling and decorating
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2½cups/312 grams all-purpose flour, more for rolling
- 1teaspoon/5 grams baking soda
- 1teaspoon/3 grams cream of tartar
- ½teaspoon/3 grams kosher salt
- 1cup/228 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
- 1½cups/188 grams confectioners sugar
- 2teaspoons/10 milliliters vanilla extract
- 1large egg
- 3¾cups/1 pound/454 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 3large egg whites
- ½teaspoon cream of tartar
- Pinch kosher salt
- Food coloring, as needed
For the Cookies
For the Royal Icing
Nutritional analysis per serving (48 servings)
113 calories; 4 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 13 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 61 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.
- Step 2
In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla, then beat in egg.
- Step 3
Add flour mixture and beat until just combined. Divide the dough in half, pat into flat rectangles, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.
- Step 4
Divide each dough parcel in half, and roll out to ⅛-inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough. Chill until firm, about 20 minutes.
- Step 5
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line four cookie sheets with parchment paper, sprinkling with a little flour if the dough seems sticky. Cut out shapes from the rolled and chilled dough and place on prepared sheets 1-inch apart. Bake until golden around the edges, 8 to 13 minutes. Let cool.
- Step 6
Meanwhile, prepare the royal icing: in the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt. Whisk until stiff and glossy.
- Step 7
To tint the frosting, divide into small bowls. Cover the ones you aren’t using with plastic wrap; the frosting dries out very quickly. Use a rubber spatula to stir in desired food coloring. Though not necessary, it makes life easier if you make two versions of each color – one that is thick to pipe the outline on the cookie, and one that is thinned out slightly with a little water to flood the outline. Transfer frosting to piping bags fitted with very small round tips (sizes 1 to 2 work best).
- Step 8
Pipe frosting onto cooled cookies and let set, at least 2 hours. Or use a pastry of paint brush to decorate cookies with the frosting.
Private Notes
Comments
Just bear in mind that kosher salt generally substitutes for table salt 2:1, so that a 1/4 tsp of table salt would be the same as a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.
The dough can be crumbly if there's too much flour added from accidentally over-packing the measuring cup.
If you have a scale, weighing is more exact. If not, try spooning the flour into the measuring cup lightly, making sure not to pack it.
This is the exact recipe we have been making for over 40 years - well it has more vanilla. Got it from a junior high home ec teacher. The cornstarch makes for a more tender dough that can be rolled repeatedly without getting tough. I roll the dough before chilling between sheets of waxed paper and then cut the cookies. Just peel the paper off before cutting to free the dough.
Very disappointing. They’re pretty tasty but don’t hold their shape. There are much better sugar cookie recipes.
Update to my initial post. These are not as disappointing as I thought. They're really delicious and deiicate! The icing and colored sugar made them really special. I made valentine cookies. The only problem is, my valentines aren't as sharp as they should be, so as others have mentioned, these are better for simple rounds or other shapes.
There is a much better sugar cookie recipe in my very old Betty Crocker cookbook that also calls for powdered sugar, and does not require parchment paper. This dough was too crumbly despite careful measurements. Adding another egg yolk made it too sticky to handle, and after rolling it between parchment paper it was unusable. Threw away the entire batch. I guess a food scale is critical for this one.
These are lovely! I added lemon zest (1/2 medium lemon) and a couple drops of almond extract. I also accidentally used salted butter (whoops) but it still turned out great! Cookies were light and crisp. Many finished in just 6min in my oven. For the icing I think it needs some more flavor but haven’t decided what kind. Great texture though.
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