I was lucky enough to find a recipe from the start that I absolutely loved! I won’t bore you with the journey… the recipe is below.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups of room temperature salted butter (take it out of the fridge an hour or two before baking)
- 2 Cups of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tbs of pure vanilla extract (none of that fake stuff), if a drop or two extra falls in the bowl, nobody will complain.
- 4 tsp of baking powder
- 6ish cups of flour
Instructions – if you want pictures for each step, keep scrolling
Preheat the oven to 350.
Cream butter and sugar in a mixer. Make sure it is fully mixed before moving on! You will need to stop every so often and scrape the side of the bowl or the spatula to insure the butter is fully incorporated.
Add in vanilla and eggs. Mix for 4-5 minutes until completely combined. You will need to scrape the sides of the bowl at least once (probably twice) to make sure everything is fully combined. I like to scrape it once before even putting the eggs and vanilla to get the butter off the sides of the bowl.
Add in baking powder.
Mix in flour, two cups at a time. I say 6ish cups total because I like to mix a little less than 6 cups since flour will be added in the process of rolling out the dough and I find that the dough can get too dry if you add it all up front. When I say a little less, it is more than 3/4 cup but less than 1 cup for the last scoop. When all of the flour is in, give it one final mix. I usually take it out of the bowl and knead the dough myself to to finish it off. I find that the flour can get stuck at the bottom of the bowl and if I do not knead it myself, it will never get mixed in.
Time to roll! Take about a quarter of the dough and knead it until it forms a ball. Lightly dust the outside of the dough with flour and then roll it out with a rolling pin. A few tips… I like to use a rolling pin with rings on the sides to make sure all of my cookies are uniform. This is not totally necessary but it also insures that the cookies will cook evenly. Check out my page that has links to all of my favorite baking tools!
Once the dough is rolled out, use your favorite cutter, place on a foil lined baking sheet, and bake for 9ish minutes. I find that 9 minutes exactly is perfect for cookie cutters under 3 inches. If you are using a cookie cutter over 3 inches, I would go for 9.5 minutes. You may need longer depending on your shape. You will know the cookies are done if you see the tiniest bit of browning on the bottom edge of the cookie. I like to try to take them out before they brown at all. You most definitely DO NOT want the tops to be brown, that is a burnt sugar cookie and it will taste dry. Still good, but dry.
