Sugar Cookies (Sisterhood Christmas Treats)

Sugar Cookies - the iconic Christmas cookie, and yet everybody's idea of that perfect sugar cookie varies drastically - Thin and crisp, or think and soft? Royal icing, or buttercream frosting?  Dough and frosting from a tube? Buy them from the grocery store?

The original Albright Sisterhood grew up with a multi-generational sugar cookie recipe that we continue to make every year - one which makes a soft sugar cookie and requires mixing the dough in advance and chilling it in the fridge for a few hours.  Yes, it requires the mess of rolling, cutting, re-rolling, cutting, and baking along with the extra work to make the frosting.  And it will probably also result in a kitchen full of colored sugar crystals and sprinkles. But the sentiment, memories, flavor, and tradition wrapped up in these cookies is, to us, worth each step of the process.

Sugar Cookie Recipe 

(from the kitchen of Leora Potter, our great-grandmother)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup margarine (margarine keeps the cookies soft; butter makes them crispy)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Cream together margarine, vanilla, and sugar. Add eggs. Then mix in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. 
2. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour - but overnight works beautifully.
3. Set out dough to bring to room temperature. Roll out dough on a floured surface about 1/4 inch thick (may require kneading in a little more flour to keep dough from sticking on surface). Cut out cookies using desired cookie cutters.
4. Bake 8-12 minutes at 375 degrees (until cookies look dry throughout the middles - if cookies turn brown, they are over-cooked)
5. Let cookies cool.
6. Freeze, store, or frost cookies (frosting recipe below).

 

Buttercream Cookie Frosting Recipe 

(modified from the Wilton buttercream frosting recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup butter (real, unsalted butter)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2-4 Tbsp. water
• 1 lb. (4 cups) powdered sugar
• pinch of salt
• food dye/color as desired

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Cream together butter, shortening, vanilla, and 2 Tbsp. water. Mix in powdered sugar and pinch of salt.
2. Add little bits of water to bring frosting to desired consistency. Mix in food dye to create desired color (Americolor brand is wonderful).

HELPFUL HINT: To get red frosting, first make frosting pink, then add Americolor red color, next let set for about 15 minutes (because color darkens over time), adding a little more red at a time until the right color

Royal Icing Option 

(for beautiful, stackable cookies)

The tutorial found here, is fabulous!  I recommend following these directions for royal icing sugar cookies.  I used these directions last year for some gift cookies.  However, we prefer the flavor of the buttercream frosting.

One More Sugar Cookie Tip:
Because it can be difficult to display and transport decorated sugar cookies efficiently, I sometimes bring a platter of unfrosted cookies with a dish of frosting for guests to frost their own sugar cookies.

Joanne for the Sisterhood