Sugar cookies mean it’s Christmas. When I was a little girl, I would look forward to the Christmas season with a giddy excitement. We didn’t have much and we didn’t go anywhere special, but we baked cookies every single day. To a girl that wanted to be a baker when she grew up, it was a dream.
We would pull out the butter-stained, hand-written recipe for melt-in-your-mouth sugar cookies and start making magic. I loved watching simple ingredients like butter and sugar transform into the most delicious, buttery, melt-in-your-mouth goodness. It was my favorite time of the year.
Even as an 8-year old girl I dreamed of the day that I would pass this tradition on to my daughter. It has taken some years, but I am soaking up this precious Christmas season as my children and I celebrate by baking together.
Merry Christmas, friends!!
Sugar Cookies
- 280 grams (2 1/2 cups) Bob’s Red Mill almond flour
- 76 grams (1/2 cup) Bob’s Red Mill Paleo Baking Flour
- 92 grams (1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp) Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 16 Tbsp grass-fed salted butter, softened (to make dairy free use 12 Tbsp Miyokos vegan butter and 1/4 cup palm shortening)
- 2 egg yolks*
- 64 grams (1/2 cup) powdered sugar
- 230 grams (1 cup) cane sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
*If you are avoiding eggs, you can leave out the egg yolks. The dough will be a little more fragile, but it will work just fine.
Directions:
- Using a stand mixer, or, hand-held mixer beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).
- Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Chill the dough until cold (about 2-4 hours).
- Place a piece of parchment paper on your work surface. Sprinkle the parchment paper with tapioca flour and roll out half of the dough. (Keep the other half of the dough in the refrigerator until you are ready to roll it out.) Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness.
- Cut out desired shapes and place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Lift the parchment paper with the cookies onto a room temperature cookie sheet; this will help keep the cookies from spreading out too much. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Cool completely before decorating.
We enjoy leaving our sugar cookies plain. Icing and decorations were always reserved for ginger bread cookies growing up so, I’m not used to decorating sugar cookies. But, you do you. Ice the cookies, roll them into balls and dip them in sugar, or leave them plain.