Sugar Cookies

I'm still trying to catch up on all my old baking adventures.  My darling husband is currently occupying himself with a rousing game of Halo on XBox so now is as good a time as any! 

I made these for cookie baskets for Christmas this year.  Yes, I'm THAT far behind!  Anyway, this is the best rolled sugar cookie recipe EVER.  Yes, ever.  It's such an easy dough to work with, doesn't puff up and it holds it's shape while baking.  

Enjoy!

Rolled Sugar Cookies

2 sticks butter

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

2 1/2 cups flour

pinch of salt

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl.
• Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla and milk.  Beat until combined. Add flour and beat until just combined.
• Roll out thick between two sheets of parchment.  Use cookie cutters.  Transfer to a parchment lined sheet.  Collect and re-roll scraps.  (For cookies with skinny parts, like these snowflakes, the dough is too soft to pick up off the parchment and transfer so I just peeled up the scrapes and transferred the parchment sheet I used to roll out straight onto the cookies sheet.  You can't cram as many in this way but it works).
• Bake until edges are pale golden, about 10 minutes.  Let cool.

Royal Icing

2 egg whites

1 pound powdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon juice

milk to thin

• Beat egg whites to stiff peaks. Add sugar and vanilla/lemon.  Beat one minute.  Thin if necessary.  
• Use immediately and cover any that you're not using.  This stuff dries to crunchy pretty quickly but will need a few hours to dry fully.  For these, I outlined in thick icing, then flooded with the thinned out version.