Description
Classic Christmas sugar cookies that are crisp on the edges and soft in the center, perfect for decorating or enjoying plain as sweet vanilla biscuits. These vanilla-flavored biscuits are easy to make and can be customized with icing, chocolate, or festive decorations.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (or use salted, skip salt)
- 1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar ok too)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
- 3 cups plain/all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
Decoration
- Icing for Sugar Cookies
- Optional: melted chocolate for dipping, silver balls, icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper to prepare for baking.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a large bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar together until creamy, about 1 minute on medium speed.
- Add Egg and Vanilla: Add the egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and beat until fully combined.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Mix in the flour, baking powder, and salt slowly, then beat until the flour is incorporated; the dough will appear clumpy.
- Shape Dough: Dust your work surface with flour and scrape the dough out of the bowl. Pat it together, cut it in half, and shape into two discs for easier rolling.
- Roll Dough: Roll out the dough to 0.3cm (1/8") thickness for thinner, crispier cookies or to 0.6cm (1/4") for thicker, softer cookies. Sprinkle flour underneath and on top of the dough to prevent sticking.
- Cut Shapes: Use cookie cutters to press out shapes. Transfer the cut shapes carefully onto the prepared baking sheets using a knife or spatula. Refrigerate any leftover dough that doesn’t fit for later use.
- Bake Cookies: Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, swapping the trays halfway through baking by moving the bottom tray to the top shelf and the top tray to the bottom shelf to ensure even baking. Cookies should be pale golden with lightly golden edges.
- Cool Cookies: Allow the cookies to cool completely on the baking trays to finish cooking and set.
- Decorate and Serve: Decorate your cookies as desired with icing, melted chocolate dips, silver balls, or a dusting of icing sugar. Alternatively, enjoy them plain for a simple vanilla biscuit.
Notes
- The number of cookies produced depends on the size of your cutters and the thickness of rolled dough; this recipe fills about 3 baking trays and yields approximately 40 cookies.
- Swapping trays halfway through baking ensures even color and texture, as the oven heats unevenly on different shelves.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for up to one week; after that, cookies may start to dry slightly but remain edible and delicious.
- If using salted butter, omit the additional salt from the recipe.
- Rolling dough thinner will yield crispier cookies; thicker rolling produces softer cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 120 kcal
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 60 mg
- Fat: 7 g
- Saturated Fat: 4 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 14 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 1.5 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
