Valentine's Bee Mine Sugar Cookies
Buttery and soft with slightly crisp edges, and not overly sweet. This sugar cookie recipe is the perfect cookie to pair with royal icing, decorated for Valentine's Day!
Servings 24 3-4 inch cookies
Equipment
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment or hand held mixer
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature) (226 g)
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar (228 g)
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (360 g)
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, equip the paddle attachment. If using a hand held mixer, equip beaters. Mix the butter on high speed for 30 seconds until creamy.
- Add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes on high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
- Add the egg, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt and mix on medium until just combined.
- Add in half of the flour and mix until incorporated, then add the other half. Stop mixing when the flour has incorporated and the dough comes together.
- Spread out a piece of plastic wrap onto the counter. Turn out the dough onto the plastic wrap. If the dough is slightly crumbly, gently knead it together. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Once chilled, preheat the oven to 350℉ (177℃). Prepare your baking trays with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into two parts. Lightly flour a clean flat surface and place the dough on top. Gently knead the dough and press flat with your palm. Roll out the dough, turning it as you roll for even thickness. If it's sticky, sprinkle flour on top of the dough. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thick.
- Cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray, 2 inches apart. 3-4 inch shapes should be baked for 9-10 minutes. Shapes smaller than 3 inches should bake for 7-8 minutes. Shapes larger than 4 inches should bake for 10-11 minutes.
- Once the oven goes off, take out the cookies and move to a cooling rack. Don't let them sit on the hot pan or they will keep baking.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely before decorating.
- Decorate cookies with royal icing. Let the royal icing air dry before covering. For gifting or mailing, let the icing dry for 12 hours or more.
- Plain cookies or decorated cookies can last in an airtight container for 1 week.
Notes
- Freezing: Cookie dough can be frozen up to 2 months. Let the dough thaw before rolling but not all the way until room temperature. Begin from step 7 above with slightly chilled dough. You can freeze undecorated cookies for 2 months. Let the cookies thaw before serving.
- Decorate: Ice cookies with royal icing. See my easy royal icing recipe with egg whites to answer all your royal icing questions. This royal icing recipe was made to pair with these sugar cookies. The cookies are buttery and not overly sweet, so the icing gives it a nice sweetness.
- Tools: The things that help me bake the perfect cookies: Nordic Baking Pans 13 x 18 inches | Stand mixer or Hand held mixer | AmeriColor soft gel paste food coloring | Piping bags | Rubber spatula | Digital scale | Rolling pin