All I Want fo Christmas is...Sugar Cookies!

With the holidays in hand, I decided to bake and decorate sugar cookies with the girls I nanny. This dough came out PERFECT and created delicious cookies that were just crisp on the outside and still soft on the inside...Yum! I used Royal Icing and Gel Food Coloring for the frosting and we had a wonderful afternoon baking, decorating...and of course...eating!!

Sugar Cookies:

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
  
• 2 tablespoon milk
• Powdered sugar (instead of flour for rolling out the dough)

1. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, place the sugar and butter together. Mix with a stand or a hand mixer until sugar is no longer loose.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of milk, vanilla and egg. Mix to combine.
   
4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the bowl.
5. Add second tablespoon of milk.
6. Depending on how warm your butter was, you may either have a very mealy mixture or a relatively smooth mixture.
7. Use you hands to gather mixture together and kneed gently into two separate disks. Don't over-kneed!!
8. Place each disk into wax paper and place in the refrigerator for AT LEAST 2 HOURS...You can leave it overnight if you like.
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
10. Take one disk of dough out of the refrigerator and sprinkle it, your rolling pin, and your rolling surface with powdered sugar.
11. Roll out dough and cut into desired shapes. Notice how we placed all of our cutters onto the dough first - this way, you can make sure to use your "dough space" to its maximum potential.

1. Place on a non-stick pan about 1 inch apart and place in the oven for approx. 7-10 minutes.
2. Repeat steps 10-12 for second disk.
3. Cool and enjoy, or frost!

Royal Icing:

• .375 cups of pasteurized egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioner's sugar

1. Place egg whites and vanilla in a bowl and whisk until foamy.
2. Slowly add the confectioner's sugar at a low speed until mixed.
3. At a high speed, continue to mix until the frosting peaks (should take 5-7 minutes)