The BEST Sugar IceBox Cookie

Notes: Not having the perfect flour to fat ratio is the main reason why sugar cookies will spread and lose their shape rather than staying nice and thick and soft while baking.

The other huge key here is not over baking your cookies. Cookies are easy to over bake because they don’t always look done when you take them out of the oven. The cookies will continue to bake as they cool, so when you remove them from the oven the edges should be done and the center should just be set and have lost it’s sheen so that it is not raw, but it is still super soft and delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup Butter (I use salted but it's a personal preference)
• 1 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Directions:

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix together your dry ingredients. Add those slowly to the egg mixture and mix well until dough forms up. Don’t over beat!

Turn the dough out onto plastic wrap and chill at LEAST 3 hours. This step is crucial because with SO much butter in the cookies, they are going to fall apart if too soft.

Flour a board or counter top LIBERALLY and roll out your cookies. If you are planning on making lollipop or flower cookies, make sure they are at least 1/4 of an inch thick to hold the sticks. If you are just doing holiday cookies, you can roll them out a little bit thinner… but if you like thick cookies? Knock your socks off.

*NOTE* Some people are finding that the cookies are too soft when they go to roll them out. If this is the case for you, make sure to LIBERALLY flour the board. The dough will pick up the extra flour and give it a little more body. Or just work in a few more tablespoons of flour into the dough! *

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them because you want them to JUST start getting golden around the edges, but not completely brown. I let them sit for a minute or two to set up on the hot tray before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Decorate however you want!! I use a simple frosting recipe of a heap ton of powdered sugar in my mixer, then adding milk until the frosting is the consistency I’d like. Super technical, right?

NOTE *** If you find that your cookies are losing their shape when you cook them, your dough is a little too warm. Put them on the cookie sheet then pop them back in the fridge for a few minutes. **

Freeze the sugar cookies– My favorite option is to freeze your cookies because this really preserves the moisture in the cookie, keeping them exceptionally soft and fresh any time you want to eat them.   Adapted from: its-fitting.com