Rolled & Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Instructions

1. 1

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together for a good fifteen seconds. You want the leavening evenly dispersed, because a pocket of baking powder will puff one corner of a cookie and ruin an otherwise clean shape.

2. 2

   Cream the butter and sugar briefly

   Beat the softened butter and granulated sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes, just until the mixture looks pale and smooth. Resist going longer. Extra creaming whips air into the dough, and air expands in the oven, which is exactly how sharp corners turn into soft blobs.

3. 3

   Add the egg and extracts

   Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract if you're using it. Mix on low until the dough looks uniform, then scrape the bowl all the way down to the bottom. Butter loves to hide in that lower curve and you'll find it later as a greasy streak.

4. 4

   Work in the flour

   With the mixer on its lowest speed, add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing only until the last dry streaks disappear. The finished dough should feel firm, slightly stiff, and a little dry to the touch rather than soft and sticky. That dryness is deliberate and it's the single biggest reason these cookies hold their edges. If the dough truly refuses to come together, add water half a teaspoon at a time.

5. 5

   Roll first, chill second

   Divide the dough in half. Place each half between two sheets of parchment and roll to an even 1/4 inch thick. Rolling while the dough is still soft means no cracked edges and no fighting a cold brick later. Stack the parchment-wrapped slabs on a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes, or up to 2 days.

6. 6

   Cut your shapes

   Heat the oven to 350°F and line two sheet pans with parchment. Peel the top parchment off one slab and cut shapes, pressing straight down and lifting straight up without twisting. Space them an inch apart on the pans. Gather the scraps, re-roll between parchment, and chill that slab again before cutting. Keep the second slab in the fridge while you work on the first.

7. 7

   Chill the cut shapes

   Slide the loaded pans into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes while the oven finishes heating. Cold dough hitting a hot oven sets the edges before the butter has a chance to melt and run. This short pause is what separates a crisp silhouette from a puddle.

8. 8

   Bake

   Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 9 to 11 minutes. Pull them when the surface looks dry and matte and the bottom edges are just barely tinged gold. The tops should still be pale. They will look slightly underdone and that's correct, because they firm up considerably as they cool.

9. 9

   Cool completely before decorating

   Let the cookies sit on the hot pan for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack. They need to reach fully room temperature before any icing touches them. Even faint residual warmth will thin royal icing and send it sliding over the edges.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Weigh your flour if you can. A heavy-handed scoop can add 40 grams or more, which turns a tender cookie into a dry one.

• 2.

  Parchment-rolling beats flour-dusting. Extra flour worked into the surface during rolling makes the finished cookies tough and chalky.

• 3.

  Use a ruler on the first slab until your eye calibrates. Under 1/4 inch and the cookies get brittle and spread; much over and the centers stay doughy.

• 4.

  Dip metal cutters in flour and tap off the excess if the dough starts clinging, and wipe the cutter between shapes on detailed designs.

• 5.

  Scraps re-roll beautifully here because the dough is barely worked, but chill each re-rolled slab before cutting or those cookies will spread more than the first batch.

• 6.

  Bake one sheet at a time. Two pans at once means uneven heat and one tray of pale cookies next to one tray of brown-edged ones.

• 7.

  Swap the almond extract for a teaspoon of finely grated lemon or orange zest if you want a brighter, less bakery-sweet cookie.

Equipment

• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Medium mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Rolling pin, ideally with thickness guide rings
• Parchment paper
• Two rimmed baking sheets
• Cookie cutters
• Wire cooling rack
• Kitchen scale

Storage