Normally, I don’t start my holiday baking until December, but Ryan and I recently purchased a Bath & Body Works Wallflower (oil diffuser) with a Sugared Snickerdoodles scent. Ryan fell asleep watching TV the night we bought it, and I plugged it in while he was busy snoozing away. When he woke up later, he sniffed the air and said, “did you make cookies while I was asleep?” Obviously, I had not baked cookies at 11pm on a Saturday night, but the Wallflower definitely created a delicious, deceptive aroma. On the following day, Ryan kept remarking that the house smelled like cookies and that he had a craving for my sugar cookies. So, out came the butter, sugar and vanilla, and an hour later, we had our first batch of holiday Sugar Cookies.

I want to share my recipe with y’all. I’ve been making these sugar cookies for YEARS, and I give away dozens of them every Christmas season. I have A lot of people from Instagram (hello, writerly friends) requested that I share it, so here it is!

 

Emma’s Holiday Sugar Cookies

 

2 ¾ c. All Purpose flour

1 t. Baking Soda

½ t. salt.

2 c. sugar (with a little extra, held to the side.)

1 ¼ c. unsalted butter (2 ½ sticks), softened.

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla.

Baking Instructions

Preheat oven to 350º.

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

Blend butter and sugar in large mixing bowl (KitchenAid Mixer size is good).

Add eggs into butter/sugar mixture, one at a time.

Add vanilla to batter.

Gradually add in dry ingredients, still mixing. (Be sure to stop and stir occasionally).

When dough is totally mixed, chill in fridge for 10-15 minutes.

Roll dough into small, round balls. Roll in sugar.

Place balls on ungreased baking sheet, approximately two inches apart.

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes. (I bake mine for EXACTLY 9 minutes because I figured out that they still come out a little chewy when cooked for that long. The trick is to take them out when the edges are turning slightly brown but the cookies don’t look 100% done).

Allow cookies to cool before transferring to a cooling rack. This recipe makes approximately 5-7 dozen cookies.

 

So there it is—my famous sugar cookie recipe. Let me know if you try it out. I’d love to hear what you think. I do have two notes for you: the first is that these sugar cookies are NOT the type to decorate with icing and the second is that you can also roll the cookies in a mixture of cinnamon-sugar to make Snickerdoodles.

It also helps if you have a kitchen helper who is eager to clean up anything you spill :

 

Bye y’all,

Emma