World's Best Vanilla Cut-Out Cookie Recipe

I have long held a love/hate relationship with cut-out cookies.  I think they can be so delicious and look gorgeous, but MAN are they a lot of work and so easy to screw up.  I have searched for years for the perfect cut-out cookie recipe (you know, not constantly searched, but I have tried literally SEVERAL recipes.)  I am nearly bursting with jubilation to announce that perfect recipe here.

First, when searching for a cut-out cookie recipe discard anything that mentions Crisco.  Butter, my friends, butter is the magical ingredient that blissfully clogs our arteries while we dream of Christmas.

Triple batch, baby!  (Note to self: overkill - maybe double batch next year.)

Second, you need to take some time with your cookie decorations.  I don't know when it became acceptable to just slap on some nasty tasting white "frosting," throw some red sugar crystals in the general direction of the cookie, and call it a day.  Not on my cookie tray.  Go big, or go make some rice krispie treats with my four year old. (Just kidding, but they do look nice when you take the time.)

Third, roll them out THICK.  Some people enjoy really thin, crispy cut-out cookies, but those people, I feel, are the minority.  A thicker, chewy on the inside cookie is going to balance the frosting better and accentuate the vanilla-y buttery deliciousness.

World's Best Vanilla Cut-Out Cookie Recipe:
from Bon Appetit December 2003 (with slight changes)

Cookies

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (get the real stuff, not the imitation kind)
• Additional sugar

For cookies:
Sift first 3 ingredients into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and 1 cup sugar in large bowl to blend well. Add egg, sour cream, and vanilla; beat 1 minute. Beat in dry ingredients in 2 additions until just blended. Gather dough together; divide in half. Flatten each half into disk; wrap in plastic and chill 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Soften dough slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Sprinkle work surface and top of dough disks with additional sugar. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough to no less than 1/4-inch thickness. Dough may be very soft and sticky, so roll out the dough between two pieces of wax paper or parchment paper. Using assorted 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut out cookies. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Gather scraps and roll out on sugared surface; cut out more cookies. Repeat until all dough is used. Chill all cookies on baking sheets at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until very light golden appears just at bottom edges, about 11 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

Icing

• 4 cups (or more) sifted powdered sugar (sifted, then measured)
• 3 tablespoons (or more) whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• (I also add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract)
• Colored sugar crystals, sprinkles, and/or decors

For icing:
Combine 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons milk, and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir until icing is well blended, smooth, and spreadable, adding more milk by teaspoonfuls if too thick or more sugar by tablespoonfuls if too thin. Use a food coloring gel, such as Wilton's, and stir a tiny bit into a portion of your icing to make a pretty color.  Using small icing spatula or table knife, spread thin layer of icing atop each cookie.  If using colored sugar crystals, sprinkle over cookies before icing sets. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

HOSTESS TIPS

1. Don't make your icing colors too bright.  A pastel blue is nice, but some people are turned off by a dark blue frosted cookie.  You just know it is going to give you blue teeth!

2. When decorating, get a bottle of those rainbow jimmies.  They are great for giving eyes to your snowman or Santa. 

3. You can freeze the cookies frosted or unfrosted, but sometimes the frosting gets a little blotchy in the freezer.  They will still taste awesome and it's not like those tiny imperfections would prevent anyone from eating them.  You really can't tell at all on the ones with lots of sprinkles, but if you look closely at the plain iced cookies, you may see a couple imperfections after they come out of the freezer - such as a couple spots that are a shade lighter.  If you want perfect, freeze the unfrosted cookies if you need to, then decorate them just a day or two before you need them.  Store in an airtight container.

4. Red food coloring added to icing often just looks pink.  If that bothers you, a delicious fix is to put some red colored sugar over the top of the pink icing.  You can see that effect on the cookies in the picture above. 

5. Cookie pans.  I highly recommend using a light-colored alumnium cookie sheet.  Use parchment paper so your cookies don't stick.  The cookies are very fragile when they first come out of the oven.

6. This is the same recipe I used to make the wedding favor cookies in this post.  But I used royal icing to decorate those.  Although royal icing arguably does not taste as good as the icing in this post, it gets really hard.  This quality makes it ideal for wedding favors because it dries quickly and the colors don't run much.