I’m currently sitting outside in the beautiful sunshine, on a small tropical carribean island, swimsuit on, by the pool of our airbnb. And though I am definitely not complaining, it’s pretty much the least christmassy place to be pre-christmas and I have to admit I am a little sad to be missing out on all the christmas season fun. I LOVE LOVE LOVE christmas, even though every year I get a little older I think I’ll love it less, I don’t. I’m in the if-you-don’t-love-christmas-you’re-a-grinch camp. As I won’t have much time before the big day when I get back this year I had to do all my christmas pre-gaming before I left. So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been annoying our whole household by making everyone watch alll the netflix christmas movies all day long. But at least I made up for it by baking them batches of pre-december christmas sugar cookies.
Every year I usually make gingerbread cookies, it’s what we’ve done in our house ever since I can remember. But truth be told I’ve always been a bit meh about gingerbread cookies. As a kid I would happily decorate them and create all kinds of funky gingerbread houses but for me they were the things you stuck the sweets to and then picked the sweets off before *kindly* offering them to everyone else. I just found them to be just kind of too hard biscuits with a meh spice flavour that never seems to live up to the hype. To be fair to gingerbread cookies out there, I have since come around more and have made some pretty great gingerbread cookies that are the soft, full of spiceness ones that I’m looking for.
But anyways I wanted to try something new and see what the hype about sugar cookies was all about. Not that sugar cookies are new, I know they have been everywhere already, but they aren’t really a christmas thing in England. We are a strict gingerbread cookies and christmas pudding nation.
I have to conclude that sugar cookies yes are worth all the hype! They are buttery and sweet and just on the right side of flaky vs crumbly. I added in some orange zest and a hint of spice to give it a more christmas flavour. And then had some fun decorating them to be christmas ready. Though to be honest quite a few of them didn’t even make it to the decorating stage…they are just as delicious plain.
This recipe makes quite a lot so you should have cookies to keep you going until christmas, or if you feeling extra kind this year a few extra to give away as gifts.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
3 cups /385g all purpose flour
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups / 250g unsalted butter
1 cup / 200g sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp meringue powder
Use 2 – 2 1/2 tbsp milk or water for border icing
Use 2 1/2 – 3 tbsp milk or water for flood icing
optional
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
zest of half an orange
Instructions
In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until just combined. Add the egg, vanilla, spices and zest and beat until all combined. In a bowl whisk flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the mixer bowl and beat until just combined to form a dough. Form the dough into two disks, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30mins.
When ready to bake let the dough sit at room temperature till slightly softened. Preheat the oven to 350F. Roll it out onto a floured surface until about 1/2cm thick. Cut out cookies shapes with cookie cutters, remove any excess dough and roll together to make more cookies. If the dough becomes too soft, put back in the fridge for a few minutes. Transfer the cookies onto a parchment lined large baking sheet.
Bake for 8-12mins depending on the size of the cookie until the edges just start turning golden. Cool down on wire racks.
Icing
Whisk together the icing ingredients together until completely smooth. If it is too thick add a few drops of milk, if too thin add a couple of spoonfuls of icing sugar. Pipe on the icing, decorating as desired.
