Sugar Cookies

Written by on in Sweets
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These delicious melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies made with brown butter are soft, chewy, and full of vanilla bean flavor. Serve them as they are or all dressed up like these Christmas cookies. 

A box of cutout Sugar Cookies decorated in with assorted sprinkles.

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One day my daughter Deidra came home from school and announced that her Jr. high was sponsoring a trip to Europe and that she wanted to go. I told her that was perfectly fine with me as long as I chaperoned. Of course, I had to pay my own way, but students were given opportunities to raise money for their trip.

We quickly learned that selling food was an easy way to raise funds. That’s when I discovered how well people liked my iced sugar cookies. Who doesn’t like a good cookie? Soon we were selling them as fast as we could bake ’em.

A memorable picture in front of the Eiffel Tower. I felt like I was at the home of my roots in France and it was worth every cookie!

After lots of experience with baking sugar cookies I’ve made some discoveries and changes along the way:

  • Browning the butter gives a richer nuttier taste.
  • Adding another egg makes a chewier cookie.
  • Using vanilla bean paste is much more flavorful than vanilla extract.

It only takes about 5 minutes to brown butter in a saucepan over the stove, and it’s amazing how much more flavor it adds to a cookie. I also use brown butter in my Chocolat Chip Cookies. All you do is stir the butter until it starts to brown and quickly take it off of the heat pouring it into a mixing bowl. Don’t be afraid to burn it. Then let it cool for about 15 minutes and cream the sugar with it.

Next, add the eggs, vanilla bean paste, and flour mixture and form the dough into a ball.

Red and white spatula stirring brown butter in a white bowl for Sugar Cookies.

Roll, Cut, and Bake ‘Da Dough

Now it’s time to throw some flour onto your work surface and kneed a bit. Then form the dough into a thick round disk.

Next, roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness and cut the sugar cookies into whatever shape you like.

For a change, you can put sprinkles in the dough for fun color and crunchy flavor.

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Sugar Cookies

  • Author: Louisiana Woman
  • Total Time: 47 minutes
  • Yield: 36 cookies 1x
Print Recipe

Description

These delicious melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies made with brown butter are soft, chewy, and full of vanilla bean flavor. Serve them as they are or all dressed up with icing and sprinkles. 

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
  3. Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, constantly stirring (for about 5 minutes) until it turns light brown.
  4. Pour browned butter immediately into a large mixing bowl to stop the browning process and cool for about 15 minutes.
  5. Add sugar to the butter and cream together.
  6. Stir one egg at a time into the creamed mix, then stir in the vanilla bean paste.
  7. Add flour and salt mixing on low until the ingredients are incorporated well, do not over mix.
  8. Flour the work surface well and turn out half of the dough, kneading a little, then shaping into a thick round disk. 
  9. Take a rolling pin and coat with flour, then roll the disk until it is 1/4 inch thick. 
  10. Use floured cookie cutters to cut out cookies and place them on lined cookie sheets.
  11. Repeat with the other half of the dough.
  12. Bake for 12 minutes or just before the edges start to brown.
  13. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack. 
  14. Decorate or serve as is.

Notes

  • Do not overbake; this ensures a tender cookie.
  • Add sprinkles to the cookie dough before rolling out for fun color and taste.
  • Decorate plain cookie dough shapes with sprinkles and colored sugar before baking.
  • Let cookies cool after baking, then ice and decorate with sprinkles on top.
  • Top the cut-out cookie dough before baking with different candies for a sweet change.
  • Prep Time: 35 minutes
  • Cook Time: 12 minutes
  • Category: Sweets
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Keywords: sugar cookies

Easy Decorating

Have you seen those beautiful cookies on Instagram and Facebook all decorated for theme parties and holidays? They really are a work of art, and I commend those of you who craft them. Now for the rest of us, we can frost them with icing and put sprinkles on top for a festive look? Anyone can spread and sprinkle!

I hope you’ve been inspired to bake these cookies or maybe you’d like to give these Fig Tart Cookies a try. If you like sweet dough tarts, you’ll love these cute thumbprint cookies. You get that sweet dough taste without all the work of the tart making.

Hey, I want to know how your cookies turn out! Did you decorate them or serve them plain? Maybe you’ll leave some out for that certain someone who comes down your chimney each year. Have a Merry Christmas and I hope to hear from you soon!

“The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear.”

From the movie, “Elf”

“And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!’’

From Charles Dickens, “A Christmas Carol”

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