Cut Out Sugar Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar, put mixer on medium-high and cream together until smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time, with beater on medium.
Add the vanilla, beating until blended.
In separate bowl, sift or mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Start adding the flour mixture with beater running on slow, until a nice dough forms.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours, or overnight is fine too.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Flour your surface and roll out dough with pastry roller to about 1/4 inch thick.
Dip edges of cookie cutters in flour, then cut out cookies.
Put cut out cookies on ungreased cookie sheets, each cut out about an inch apart.
Bake in preheated oven on middle rack for 6 to 9 minutes (depending on your oven); watch closely.
Remove and cool on a rack before icing.

You can freeze the dough if you wish. Just wrap with plastic food wrap and put in the refrigerator to chill. Then put plastic wrapped dough in zipper freezer bag and seal tight. The dough will be good for up to a month in the freezer. When you are ready to use the dough, remove from freezer and put in refrigerator to thaw.  This will take 3 or 4 hours, depending on your refrigerator temperature.

Take the thawed dough out of the refrigerator, take it out of it’s wrappings, put it in a bowl and loosely cover in clean plastic wrap. Let the dough sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to make it easier to handle and roll out.

You can also cut out the cookies before you freeze them. After cutting out the cookies as directed above, put each individual cut out on a cookie sheet (no need to allow room between each one; you’re not baking them.)  Put the cookie sheet in the freezer.  After about an hour, remove the cookies and stack in zipper freezer bags with a piece of parchment paper in between each cookie just to make double sure they don’t stick together. When you’re ready to bake them, remove the ones you want, thaw on the kitchen counter for about 20 minutes, then bake as directed.

For the fastest way to decorating, you can cut out the cookies and bake them before freezing.  Just follow the directions for cutting out the cookies and baking them. Then, when cut outs are completely cooled, just stack them up, using a piece of plastic wrap between each one, and put them in zipper freezer bags. When ready to decorate, remove the ones you want from the freezer and thaw on the kitchen counter for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Then decorate as you wish.

Click on these links if you’re looking for a Simple Sugar Cookie Icing recipe or for a more Traditional Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies.  Both are delicious and fun to make.