Description
These whimsical sugar cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day! The best part? You can adapt this to any occasion and holiday!
Ingredients
Scale
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons red food coloring
- Sprinkles/decorations of your choice
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the softened butter at medium speed until smooth. Then, add the sugar and cream the mixture together for a couple of minutes until fluffy.
- Add the eggs (one at a time) and vanilla extract and continue beating at medium speed until combined.
- Slowly pour in the flour mixture and stir at low speed until combined.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and split it in half. I used a kitchen scale to ensure that both portions were even.
- Return one of the dough halves to the bowl of your electric mixer and add the red food coloring. Beat until you reach the desired red color.
- Shape each dough half into an 8-inch square. Wrap each square in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Remove the squares from the refrigerator and slice each of them in half — you should have four rectangles at this point (two white, two red).
- Take out two sheets of wax or parchment paper and place a white dough rectangle on each sheet. Then, place a red dough rectangle on top of each white rectangle.
- Take out two more sheets of wax/parchment paper and place them on top of each dough stack. Roll out each stack into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick. Rolling the dough in between the two sheets makes life a *lot* easier.
- Remove the sheet of wax/parchment paper from the top of each stack and starting from the short side of the rectangle, roll each stack into a log — you want to make this as tight as possible so there are no gaps in your cookies!
- Pour the sprinkles out into a shallow baking sheet or dish and roll each log into the sprinkles until fully covered.
- Wrap each log in a sheet of wax or parchment paper, and then plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat mat. Roll the logs on the counter a bit to get rid of any flat sides.
- Unwrap the logs and slice each of them into 1/4-inch thick rounds. Place each cookie about an inch apart — they’ll expand slightly (not much!) while baking.
- Bake each sheet for 10-11 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Repeat until all the dough is used up.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Just A Taste .