Ingredients
- 225g / 1 cup unsalted butter , softened (or use salted, skip salt)
- 1 cup caster/superfine sugar (granulated/ordinary white sugar ok too)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg (55-60g / 1.9-2oz)
- 3 cups flour , plain / all purpose
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
Icing for Sugar Cookies
- Icing for Sugar Cookies
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy (1 minute on speed 5)
- Add egg and vanilla, beat until completely combined.
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Start mixing slowly, then beat until the flour is incorporated – it will be clumpy.
- Dust work surface with flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Pat together then cut in half, then shape into 2 discs.
- Roll out to 0.3cm / 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 0.6cm / 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies), sprinkling with flour under and over the dough so it doesn't stick.
- Use cookie cutters to press out shapes and use a knife or spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheets. (Keep dough that doesn’t fit in the oven in the fridge).
- Bake for 10 minutes, swapping trays halfway (Note 2), until the surface is pale golden and the edges are just beginning to turn light golden.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on trays (they will finish cooking on the trays).
DECORATING OPTIONS:
- Icing – see Icing for Christmas Cookies recipe.
- Melt chocolate then dip the surface into chocolate.
- Dot with icing sugar and decorated with silver balls
- Dust with icing sugar
- Serve plain! They are sweet vanilla biscuits so they are wonderful eaten just as they are!
Recipe Notes:
1. Number of cookies will depend on cut out size and how thick you roll your dough. It fills 3 baking trays.2. Swapping trays halfway – this means that you put both trays in the oven with one in the middle of the oven and the other underneath. Halfway through the bake time, switch them around so the one underneath moves to the top shelf, and the tray on top moves to the shelf underneath. This ensures they both bake evenly because the top shelf bakes faster than the shelf underneath.3. Source – adapted from this Sugar Cookies recipe by Sugar, Spun, Run. 4. Storage – Keeps in an airtight container for a week. After this, they are still edible and totally delicious but they do start to dry out a touch (I think….I may be a bit too picky when I’m estimating shelf life of food for recipes I share!!). I would never describe them as stale, but they are better in Week 1.
NUTRITION INFORMATION:
Calories:96cal (5%)Carbohydrates:12g (4%)Protein:1g (2%)Fat:5g (8%)Saturated Fat:3g (19%)Cholesterol:16mg (5%)Sodium:46mg (2%)Potassium:20mg (1%)Fiber:1g (4%)Sugar:5g (6%)Vitamin A:147IU (3%)Calcium:7mg (1%)Iron:1mg (6%)
Originally published 2019. Reviewed and refreshed as needed every year or so. No change to recipe, it’s a classic!
Life Of Dozer
When Dozer got his very own personalised Christmas cookie!!
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In terms of the q’s about freezability – I froze my iced cookies (once they’d set) in layers (with baking paper in-between them) in an airtight container. I put a layer of foil over the very top to ‘tuck them in’ before putting the lid on. They froze beautifully and when needed, defrosted quickly on the kitchen bench within a few hours. Quality was great 👍🍪🩷
This is probably one of the easiest Xmas cookies recipes I have ever used. Easy to handle and delicious. I didn’t decorate them but used an embossed rolling pin and round cookie cutter which worked perfectly. Thanks Nagi
Perfect texture and best dough to get the perfect thickness! Will be using this recipe often!
Hi can this dough be frozen for later use? as I plan on baking a large batch. and if so how would i go about baking them? Thank you
Is there a way to substitute the egg? Has anyone tried it?
I guess swapping butter with a dairy free option will work too?
Thanks
can you make one for kids to independently make? maybe without the beater
My mixer broke, and I was able to make these cookies with just a wooden spoon. You want the butter to be quite soft (otherwise the kids will struggle to squish it with the spoon) but not melted (or cookies will spread)
I think with 225g unsalted butter it’s oozing with oil!…too much to handle! or maybe coz it’s getting hotter in the kitchen coz it’s summer. Do you think I should add more flour? I actually ended up refrigerating the dough!
Hi Nagi,
I’m in a Cafe and we want to sell these for the Xmas season.
Can you PLEASE tell me whether these biscuits can be frozen WITH the icing?!
I really need an answer!
Thank you! Xxx
This one is getting saved for sure!
Can I make these without egg? Allergies 🤦♀️
I loved these cookies I’m only 12 and it was such a simple recipe we all while them while setting up the Christmas tree and listing to Christmas carols I would 100%recommend these I love you so much as a cook keep making new recipes for me to try
I made these today and they were delicious! But my dough was super crumbly, I added a tiny bit of water to help make it more malleable but still very tricky to work with. Any tips? I double checked the recipe but maybe the egg wasn’t big enough or I slightly under measured the butter? Is water ok to add?
Thank you Brelin, came to look for this answer. Not long found out my son is ceiliac and we love making biscuits for Santa at Christmas time.
I have family members I enjoy making gluten free recipes for. In Canada, I used Real Canadian Superstore President’s Choice (PC) brand of GF 1-to-1 flour and they were very yummy. Our family had fun icing Hallowe’en themed cookies recently. We plan to do them for Christmas next. 🙂 I thought this might help Canadian celiac home chefs to know that the Cdn. PC brand was very successful in this recipe!
Ok to make these with a stand mixer yeah?