The Best Sugar Cookies

In between school (only four more school days until Christmas break!), the Winter Band Concert last night (sounded good!), an orthodontist appointment today (Paul's braces will be off soon!), and Christmas shopping (almost done!), Paul and I have been making sugar cookies.  And getting "sugared up" by eating a few, hence the use of too many !!!!   

Paul and I have been making sugar cookies together since he was a wee little guy.  Usually I mix them up, chill them, and roll them out.  Then Paul cuts them out with our well-curated collection of Christmas cutters, many of which were passed on to us from my mother, who also was a big sugar cookie fan.  Paul does most of the decorating for which he currently relies on colored sugars.  

 I'm so glad he still enjoys doing this with me, and I hope he never stops.  

Rolling out sugar cookies can be tricky, and for a while I was using my mom's recipe, "Mary's Sugar Cookies" which she got from the Betty Crocker cookbook, I think.  For a year or two I tried a recipe using butterscotch pudding.  But last year I finally found what I consider to be the perfect sugar cookie recipe over at AllRecipes.com.  I find the dough very easy to handle and the resulting baked cookie quite tasty.  I know everyone has their own idea of "easy" and "tasty" but out of 5,000+ reviews on AllRecipes, there are only a few negative ones, so most people have great success with this version.  Hope you enjoy it, too! 

The Best Rolled Sugar Cookies

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

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Directions

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.