My list of Christmas baking is long with all my favourite recipes that I love making every year and all the new recipes that I want to try. And then there are all the last minute inspirations that I see floating around on Instagram, Pinterest, in coffee shops and well, just about everywhere! There is one Christmas cookie that will always be loved by just about everyone, kids and adults included – the simple, yet, can be sophisticated, Christmas sugar cookies!

With so many fancy designs and beautifully decorated Christmas cookies, the sugar cookie has up’d its game in the public eye and by the home baker! Probably a lot of us have seen so many sugar cookie designs and thought “I can do that, seems easy enough”. But once tackling the design and getting the icing colours just right you end up with something that may resemble children’s art work.

Christmas sugar cookies, simple cookies, holiday baking, cookies, royal icing,

Well, I may not be the best at piping and perfecting the cutest Christmas sugar cookies ever but I did find a classy way to make it look like I did! By keeping everything one colour and adding little touches of sugar crystals and silver balls these cookies look quite sophisticated. I didn’t even fuss about the icing and try to make everything look perfect. In reality the imperfect drips of ‘snowy’ icing looks even better! There’s no messing with food colouring or overthinking how to design the icing to look just perfect. They just do, because of the simple snowy feel of using the same white colour.

Ingredients

Unsalted butter
Granulated sugar, icing sugar
Eggs
Full milk
Vanilla extract
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Salt
Candied silver balls (optional)
Coarse sugar crystals (optional)
Lemon juice or almond extract (optional)

Christmas Sugar Cookies

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A staple sugar cookie recipe you’ll use time after time for any holiday season, festivity, or special occasion!

Author: Alie Romano
Prep Time: 40 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 50 mins
Yield: 2 dozen 1x
Category: Dessert
Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units Scale

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons full milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Candied silver balls (optional)
Coarse sugar crystals (optional)

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to butter mixture, and mix until dough forms into a ball. Split dough in half and shape each piece into a disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 20 -30 minutes.
On a lightly floured work surface roll out dough approx. 1/8 in thickness. Using a cookie cutter cut out desired shapes and place them on your prepared cookie sheet approx. 1 inch apart (it’s best to keep similar sizes and shapes on one pan, as different sizes will bake faster or slower than others).
Bake for approx. 8-10 minutes until the bottoms start to brown (baking times differ depending on the size of your cookies, so check often).
Cool cookies on a cooling rack.
Ice with Royal icing once cookies are cool (see recipe below) and decorate with silver balls and coarse sugar (optional).

Notes

Cookies last a long time, store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. You can also freeze cookies for up to 2 months.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 plain cookie
Calories: 107
Sugar: 8.5g
Sodium: 54mg
Fat: 4.2g
Saturated Fat: 2.5g
Unsaturated Fat: 0
Trans Fat: 0
Carbohydrates: 16.5g
Fiber: 0.3g
Protein: 1.4g
Cholesterol: 18mg

Royal Icing

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A classic, simple royal icing recipe that can be used to fancy up cookies, cakes, and all sorts of treats.

Author: Alie Romano
Prep Time: 8 mins
Total Time: 8 mins
Yield: 2 cups 1x
Category: Dessert
Cuisine: British

Ingredients

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2 egg whites, at room temperature
2 cups sifted icing sugar
1–2 teaspoons lemon juice or almond extract (optional)

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Instructions

In a clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer, whisk egg whites until foamy (about 3 minutes), add lemon juice if using.
Slowly add icing sugar.
Raise the speed to medium – high until icing is thick and shiny. This should take about 4-5 minutes (If you feel the mixture is still too runny at this point you can add more icing sugar to help stiffen it up, just add a little at a time).
Add icing to a piping bag and pipe on cooled cookies.
Let air-dry for at least an hour.

Notes

Royal icing is a bit of trial and error to find the consistency that you like to work with (thick or runny). Rule of thumb is one egg white to one cup of icing sugar. Remember when the icing is runny the icing will spread out.
Also the icing needs lots of time to air-dry (I like to let my piped cookies air-dry overnight).