Sugar Cookies

I made these sugar cookies along with the cake balls for a friend and I think they turned out much better than the cake balls, and they were ALOT of fun to make!  So much fun that at 3am I decided to make another batch!  The first recipe though had almond extract and I used my last drop of it so I decided to just try out another Sugar Cookie recipe, I planned to try to compare and see which was better but I couldn't decide.  I will be posting tomorrow about Royal Icing.  If you love to bake I strongly recommend baking some Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing...SOOOOO much fun!

Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ tsp. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ cup flour

Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 6-8 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.

Adapted from Annie's Eats.

Alton Brown's Sugar Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp. vanilla (optional, I added this just because I LOVE vanilla) 

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Chill dough until firm.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll out dough to 1/4" on surface covered in powdered sugar.  Cut into desired shape and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 5-7 minutes.  Let cool for a couple of minutes before removing.  Ice or serve plain, store in airtight container up to a week.

Adapted from the Food Network.