Sugar Cookies - HBC December

Getting back after a long break is indeed a tough task. And it gets tougher day by day. Thanks to Priya Akka who started the Home Bakers' Challenge, because if it was not for this challenge, this blog would have been a forgotten mess ( as if it's not already! ;) ). Thanks to Priya Ranjit who suggested December's super duper recipes ! Out of the many recipes in the challenge, I chose these old fashioned sugar cookies. After all, what is Christmas without Sugar Cookies ! I had fun decorating them and my son had more fun eating 'em up ! Here goes the recipe for the easy peasy Sugar Cookies.

Recipe source : Foodnetwork
Yields about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients :

• Unsalted butter : 1 cup (2 sticks)
• Fine Sugar : 1 cup
• Eggs: 2 nos.
• All Purpose Flour : 3 cups
• Vanilla extract : 1 tsp
• Baking Powder : 2 tsp
• Salt : 1 tsp

Method :

1. Cream the butter and sugar well in a large bowl. 
2. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract to it and mix well.
3. In another mixing bowl, whisk together flour , salt and baking powder. 
4. Add the flour mixture one cup a time to the butter+sugar+egg mixture. Mix well with a wooden spoon.
5. If the flour mixture did not come together, knead the dough on the countertop to form a soft dough.
6. Wrap this in a cling wrap and refrigerate it for 2-3 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie tray with parchment paper.
8. Take out the dough and roll it out and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.
9. Decorate with sprinkles if desired at this stage.
10. Arrange the cut out dough on the prepared tray. Chill the tray for 5-10 minutes.
11. Bake them for 10-15 minutes. ( Mine was done in exactly 7 minutes.)
12. Cool them on a wire rack.
13. When cooled completely, decorate with icing if desired.

Notes :

• Make sure that the butter and eggs are in room temperature before use.
• Do NOT melt the butter in microwave. Just take the butter out from refrigerator much before starting the cookie prep.
• The right time to take out the cookies from the oven are when they are lightly browned underneath but still white on top. They get fully cooked when they are cooling down, so even if they are soft when taking out, just leave them on the tray for 20-30 mins.