Holiday Baking: Favorite Rolled Sugar Cookie Recipe

Thank you to Samsung for sponsoring this post, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that allow City Peach to run full-time.

Believe it or not, there are major discussions out there to the best sugar cookie. I stumbled upon this because I had a recipe I had used my entire life and somehow misplaced it, so I went to google to try and find something similar. Well, I got lost down a rabbit hole and then got overwhelmed at all the recipes out there! The one I had as a child was for a simple rolled dough but there was a kick in it and I know it was lemon extract. So now after trial and error, I know for a fact that is the key secret ingredient to making them extra special. Kind of like an animal cookie with that special flavor you can’t put your finger on. Today I wanted to share what I’ve come up with for a great rolled sugar cookie recipe… and still hope to one day find my old one!

After going through google to try and find something, I decided to not make it complicated and find one that is most simple, but still uses a few specific ingredients I love, and then just kind of made my own from there. But it has proven to be delicious! I’ve looked through a ton of ‘sugar cookie recipe’ posts, and they are all slightly different, so I took the best and added a special little touch.

So here it is, my personal sugar cookie recipe:

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter – we use Kerry Gold unsalted

1 cup cane sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon extract

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

A few baking notes:

-Kerry Gold is our favorite butter, it’s healthy and high in fat so it bakes well

-King Arthur all-purpose flour is the best out there in quality and how it bakes (always look for non-bleached, there is no need to use bleached food that you ingest)

-use Madagascar vanilla, it’s more flavorful, and always use pure vanilla extract, never imitation

-use cane sugar instead of white sugar (i take lesser evils when i can get them)

Mix softened butter and sugar until well blended. Add extracts. Add egg. Once completely blended, add flour slowly (I usually add a cup at a time). I mix the baking powder into my flour beforehand so it’s evenly distributed. Roll dough out a bit, then into a ball, it shouldn’t be sticky at this point. Chill for an hour. Once rolled and cut into shapes, bake at 350 for 7 minutes.

If you make it, let me know! One of the important parts is chilling the dough before you actually bake it. And I did find recipes out there that cut that part out with pride… but honestly, I think it makes a difference. We popped it into our Samsung fridge in a nice dough ball and created anticipation for later! And for us this year, it worked into our schedule without too many meltdowns! Elston and I prepared the dough earlier in the day yesterday. This girl is obsessed with helping us in the kitchen, and at 2 years old, it’s not the cleanest of help, but I know she absolutely loves it. So I had her stir the butter once it was softened, then she helped pour in all the ingredients. She loves stopping to smell everything before it goes in. I think she takes after me in maybe using her sense of smell to identify things… I’m always smelling everything! She loved smelling that vanilla extract and she for sure stuck her little fingers in that butter! Haha, good thing this batch is just for our family.

After we prepared the dough, I rolled it up into a ball, into a sheet of wax paper, and popped it into the fridge. We have a Samsung and always have! This is the brand we knew we wanted when it came to a refrigerator when we bought our house because they are reputable and know they have great technology behind their products. Literally every TV in our house is a Samsung too, I guess we are just a Samsung family. I remember when we went to go pick it out, there were a ton of choices, and Robert wasn’t sold on having the ice and water dispenser in the front. He didn’t think it was imperatively necessary. He did know he wanted Samsung (he already had his TV from single life as a Samsung), so we agreed there, but I remember having to convince him that the front dispenser was major and we needed it. I honestly would love to know what you all think about that… if I’m way off, or if it’s a known must-have?!

Usually, you only need to let the dough chill for about an hour. Anything under that, just make sure it’s cold enough all the way through. I’m not a chef, but baking is probably my only forte in the kitchen, and I know it helps the emulsifying process and properties once they get into the oven. Since we did our cookie preparing during holiday festivities, quite literally, we ended up having to put the baking part on hold and venture out to our Christmas Eve festivities. So, today, Christmas Day, we are taking our dough over to my in-laws house along with the rest of our troop… animals, kids, gifts, lunch. Our ball of dough went right into their Samsung refrigerator lol! They have the same one that we do and I know it’s because of the quality because they are going to make sure their products last.

After we visited and did presents, we then got to work on rolling out our cookies! I think this was the kids’ favorite part. This and adding sprinkles to the finished product! Once we bake them, I add frosting and we decorate the tops. In years past, I do make our own icing, but I have yet to find one that doesn’t taste too much like powdered sugar (b/c that’s what most homemade ones taste like) and more like rainbow chip, lol. So this year, I grabbed one that looked pretty ok, and approved by me with not being so sweet or made with high fructose corn syrup. That’s a huge no in our house. This one has only a few ingredients and uses simple cane sugar, some monk fruit, and coconut oil!

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, we are enjoying this one with the kids. Their ages 2 & 4 are the best yet! Head over to stories to get a glimpse at our Barbie house building and some of last night’s magic. I would also love to know if you have any special recipes or even a sugar cookie recipe for the holidays that you swear by. Leave them in the comments!

This. is. life.