In this article….Find out to make sugar cookies that don’t lose their shape, and taste delicious!

Sugar cookies are one of my current, favorite projects — it’s food that is art. What’s not to love?! And since I dove head first into sugar-cookie making about a year ago, I have learned quite a bit, and found what works and what doesn’t. In this two-part series, I show you how to make professional-looking sugar cookies from start to finish. Watch the video or follow the step-by-step blog post, complete with pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Let me know if you have any questions, I’d love to help. Also, I’d love to see your sugar-cookie results. Share them with me in the comments below!

Check out the video and see how simple it is to make the Perfect Sugar Cookie:


Perfect Sugar Cookies, Part 1 – Making the Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups, or 4 sticks, of butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons almond extract

5 cups flour


Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar together until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the edges of the bowl.

2. Add eggs, salt and extract. It’s the almond extract that takes your cookies from dull to delicious! Trust me. It’s a game-changer.

3. Slowly add flour.

4. Continue to mix until well combined. Scrape the edges and bottom of the bowl a second time.

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5. Scoop about a cup of batter onto a cookie-sheet-sized piece of parchment paper. Place a second piece of parchment onto the dough.

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6. Use a rolling pin to roll out of the dough until its about 1/4″ thick.

7. Place the rolled-out dough onto a cookie sheet and place it all in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes until solid. This is a tip that will help your cookies be easier to cut out, and they won’t lose their shape!

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8. Remove from freezer, and take off the top piece of parchment paper.

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9. Use your cookie cutter to cut the dough.The dough should be like one solid piece, but you should still be able to get the cutter through. If it’s too frozen, you may have to let it thaw a bit before continuing.

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10. The cutout should come out of the dough along with the cookie cutter. Gently push the dough out of the cutter with your hands. Pay special attention to smaller areas, like the trunk in this case. Because the dough is frozen, it should keep its shape really well. If there are any stray pieces, use your fingers to smooth it.

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11. Place them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden.

And there you go. The perfect sugar cookies, that taste divine and keep their shape. Join us for part two of the series, where we learn how to decorate sugar cookies like a pro. You’ll be making cookies for all your family and friends, and they’ll think they came from a bakery. That’s next time at Lori Garcia Studios.