Holiday Sugar Cookies
These buttery, delicious cookies are perfect for decorating and are a tasty treat for parties or gifting. I like adding both lemon extract and zest to give the cookie dough a bright flavor. Decorating the cookies with royal icing made with meringue powder makes a beautiful finish that dries hard and stays intact even if you are sending them to a loved one.See Cardamom Variation in the Notes!
Servings: 48 cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 4 1/2 cups (540g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Baking Salt
- 1 cup (220g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 2/3 cups (332g) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 tsp lemon extract or any other extract you like
- Zest of half a lemon optional
Royal Icing
- 4 cups (480g) confectioners' sugar plus more to thicken
- 1/4 cup (30g) meringue powder
- 1/8 tsp Diamond Crystal Baking Salt
- 1/4 cup (60g) fresh lemon juice or water plus more to thin
- 1/2 tsp lemon extract or any other flavor
- food coloring optional
Instructions
Make the Cookie Dough
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition and scraping the bowl. Mix in the vanilla, lemon extract, and zest (if using).
- Add the flour mixture all at once and mix on low speed just until it all comes together. Scrape down the bowl, increase the speed to medium, and mix for 15 seconds.
- Press the dough into a disk, wrap it in a plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour. It can be made a couple of days ahead or frozen for up to 3 weeks.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ (175℃). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a rectangle 1/8 inch / 3 mm thick.
- Use cookie cutters to create fun shapes out of the dough. Place the cut cookies on the prepared baking sheets, leaving enough room for them to spread slightly, about 1 inch apart. If your dough starts to get warm and sticky, return it to the refrigerator, until firm, about 10 minutes. Warm dough will be difficult to work with.
- Bake, one sheet at a time, in the middle of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes, until just golden on the bottom—you don't want too much color on them. The baking time will depend on the size of the cookie. Let them cool on the baking sheets completely before decorating.
Make the Royal Icing
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, stir together the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder, salt, lemon juice, and lemon extract on low speed until blended. Turn up the speed to medium-high and whip until light and fluffy, like meringue, about 3 minutes. It will be quite thick, and you need it this way to create glue if you are making a sugar cookie house. You can thin it with more water or thicken it with more sugar to suit your needs.
- Add food coloring (if using) to the icing at this point.
- Make sure to keep the icing covered at all times, since it dries hard and will develop a skin of hard icing within minutes. I use a damp clean kitchen towel over the bowl. If the icing sits for several minutes between uses, gently stir the bowl well before using, to get rid of any air bubbles, and to make sure the icing hasn't separated.
- Decorate the cookie as you see fit and leave out for about an hour so the icing can harden. The drying time will be determined by the humidity in your kitchen.
Video
Notes
Cardamom Variation:
Cardamom dough: Add 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cardamom powder to the dough when you add the flour. Cardamom can be intense, so if you are not sure, start with 1 teaspoon.
Cardamom icing: Add 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom powder to the icing. (I used 2 Tbsps of rum in place of some of the lemon juice to jazz up the icing. This is 100% optional). I like the cardamom with lemon but you can also use water.