Cut-Out Christmas Sugar Cookies

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. You will need about 5 baking sheets so you will probably have to bake the cookies in batches.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the confectioner’s sugar. Beat in the egg and the almond extract and mix to combine. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat until a thick dough has formed.

Lay out a piece of parchment paper and place the dough on top of the parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper on top and roll out the dough until it is ¼-inch thick.

Peel off the top piece of parchment paper and using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies. Then carefully transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies until just before the edges start to turn a light brown—about 7 minutes.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

At this point you can either leave the cookies as is or decorate them with Royal Icing. My favorite Royal Icing recipe is from Sweet Sugar Belle. I recommend using her recipe as well. I also decorated the cookies with different colors of sugar sprinkles.

Cookies last about up to 1 week in an airtight container.

Source: The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle