Valentine’s day is just around the corner. Walking into the grocery store, you are assaulted by stacks upon stacks of chocolates, candies, stuffed animals, flowers, and brightly decorated sugar cookies.
I do love sugar cookies! They are one of my favorites, but, as convenient as it is to buy them in the store, they just aren’t the same as homemade. They have an almost chemically aftertaste that has a bad habit of lingering in your mouth for ages.
So, this year, why don’t you try your hand at these super ease, super delicious cookies?! One really nice thing about making your own cookies, is that you get to be the one to decide how thin or thick they are, how big or small they are, and how hard or soft they are. PLUS, it’s the perfect opportunity to get the Littles involved with decorating, or to spend some quality time baking with your BFF.
When it comes to the decorating itself, there are a myriad of options. You can use spoons, knives, piping bags, or even ziplock bags to do the frosting. I don’t have a good piping set as of yet, so I use the ziplock bag method. Just cut a tiny piece of the corner off of a sandwich baggy, fill the bag with frosting, and use the small hole as your “piping tip”. The smaller the hole, the more precise “pen” you have for writing words and making designs.
I do hope that you enjoy these cookies: both the eating of them and the making of them. Happy Valentine’s Day, Friends!
The Best Sugar Cookies
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Ingredients:
- 2 Eggs
- 1 cup Sugar + 2 TBSP (230 grams)
- 1 cup Butter, softened (220 grams)
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 3 cups all-purpose Flour (450 grams)
- 1 tsp Salt (7 grams)
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
Frosting Ingredients:
- 2 TBSP Butter, softened
- ½ tsp Vanilla
- 2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1/4 cup Milk
- Sprinkles (I actually used Pearl Sugar for these cookies. I added a few drops of red food coloring to change the color so that I had white, red, and pink sprinkles)!
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
With a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar together on high for about a minute. Add the softened butter and vanilla, and beat it again, until it is well combined.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together with a whisk. Sift the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Using a spoon, gently mix everything together. Once the dough is firm, I use my hands to finish combining it into a nice smooth ball of dough.
On a lightly floured counter, roll out the dough as evenly as possible, and to your desired thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut out shapes and place them on a greased cookie sheet (I like to use these air bake pans—they are great for keeping an even bake on the bottom of your cookies, and it is very unlikely that they will burn).
Leave a little bit of space between each cookie because they will rise some as they bake. Once all your cookies are cut out and on the baking sheets, place them in the pre-heated oven. Bake them for 8-10 minutes (I actually bake mine for about 7 minutes, and that keeps them really nice and soft). You can adjust the baking time to your likeness, depending on how hard you want your cookies to be.
Remove the baked cookies from the cookie sheets and gently place them on cooling racks.
To make the frosting, beat all of the ingredients in a bowl until the frosting is smooth and shiny (I just use a fork to beat it). Depending on how thick you want your frosting to be, you may need to add a little bit more or less powdered sugar.
At this point, split the frosting up into several small bowls. Using food coloring, color each bowl of frosting to represent whatever colors you would like to use on your cookies.
Once the cookies have cooled completely, decorate them with your homemade frosting and, of course, sprinkles.
Life is short. Bake cookies. Eat the cookies. Make sure that your People know how much you love them.