I am so far behind on my 12 days of Homemade Christmas blogs that it isn’t even funny but I will be catching up as fast as I can before Christmas. I have been working on a huge project that was very close to my heart. As a community outreach director for Team RWB I am always looking for different ways we can give back to our community. I thought what better way to give back to our community and help veterans at the same time than to visit the North Carolina State veterans home and since it was Christmas bring them some Christmas treats. Part one of the project was to have a cookie exchange and cookie decorating event. Classic Cut Out Sugar Cookies were to be made and decorated. I just had to figure out how to make it work.
Since Team RWB is a volunteer led non profit organization I needed to find the most cost effective way of going about this. I looked at the cost of premade dough as well as cookie mixes and decided homemade cut out sugar cookies would be the way we would go. Next step was finding a recipe. I have a family recipe that we love but they often puff a bit and lose their shape. I wanted the cookies to hold their shape. So I asked my Allrecipes Allstar friends for their favorite recipe and I went to work on the King Arthur Flour Cut Out Sugar Cookies recipe.
Since I wasn’t making the cookies for myself I made them with regular all purpose flour. I had a ton of cookies to make too. All purpose flour was the most cost effective way to get the job done. I ended up making over 15 dozen cut out sugar cookies! My Allrecipes Allstar friends were spot on with their recipe recommendation too. These cookies perfectly held their shape! I then gave a few to my family to test out and they said they were perfect. Hopefully the veterans at the veterans home thought so too! We visited with them and delivered the bags full of treats on Sunday. Visiting with them was completely humbling and worth it overtime we saw a face light up.
Now that it is time for me to make cookies for my family for Christmas I will most definitely be making this recipe so my kids can make and decorate cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Check out my 12 Days of Homemade Christmas for other great ideas!
- 1¼ cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons salted butter or margarine, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2¾ cups All-Purpose Flour
- Combine the sugar, butter, egg yolk, salt, and flavor, beating until smooth. Add the flour, mixing until smooth. The mixture will seem dry at first, but will suddenly come together. If it doesn't, dribble in a tablespoon of water.
- Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a flattened disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 2 hours, or overnight. When you're ready to bake, remove the dough from the refrigerator, and let it soften for about 20 to 30 minutes, until it feels soft enough to roll. It should still feel cold, but shouldn't feel rock-hard.
- Sprinkle your rolling surface with flour, and flour your rolling pin. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll it ⅛" to 3/16" thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut shapes. Re-roll and cut the dough scraps. Place the cookies on ungreased or parchment-lined baking sheets. They can be close together; they'll barely spread.
- Bake the cookies in a preheated 350°F oven for 12 to 14 minutes, until they're set and barely browned around the edges.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool right on the pan. If you've used parchment, you can lift cookies and parchment off the pan, so you can continue to use the pan as the cookies cool.
- Repeat with the remaining piece of dough, rolling, cutting, and baking cookies. When cookies are completely cool, ice and decorate.
Recipe from King Arthur Flour