Easy Sugar Cookies

Published December 17, 2014

Sugar Cookie Trees

These are a classic and always part of my holiday cookie baking. I change the shapes for the different holidays. I will confess to having an enormous assortment of cookie cutters. This time of year I am making trees, stars, snowmen and more. I use royal icing to frost them and an assortment of sprinkles and other candies. Royal icing is made with egg whites, powdered egg whites, actually. The advantage over say, a butter cream, is that this frosting hardens, making the cookies easy to pack and stack. You don’t need much- just a thin layer and tinting the frosting different colors is a big part of the fun. Depending on how much time you have, you can get really creative with decorating these cookies.

Easy Sugar Cookies

1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
3 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
3 T. milk
Extra sugar for sprinkling, if desired
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Beat in milk. Heat oven to 375-degrees. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to about 1/3- inch thickness. Cut out with lightly floured cutters and sprinkle with sugar or colored sugar if you like and if you are not going to frost them. Bake on an ungreased baking sheet for 10-12 minutes. Cool on baking sheet 3 minutes before placing on wire rack to cool completely. Frost when cooled. Makes about 4 dozen.
Decorating your cookies:
You can use tube of pre-made frosting or you can tint canned frosting, however the best way is to use royal icing. Because royal icing contains egg whites it gets hard. Cookies have a smooth appearance and can be stacked. When making royal icing ALWAYS USE PASTUERIZED EGG WHITES OR POWDERED EGGS WHITES TO PREVENT SAMONELLA.
You can also use colored sugar and sprinkles and mini chocolate chips for eyes.

Royal Icing
1 lb. powdered sugar
½ t. cream of tartar
5¼ t. egg white powder
6 T. water
½ t. vanilla, optional
Assorted food colorings
In large mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and mix well. Add water and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Divide into small bowls and tint each batch as needed. Keep bowl covered with a damp towel while waiting to use so frosting will not dry out.