The Ultimate Sugar Cookie Recipe for Cut-Outs

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (nut allergy? you can substitute this with extra vanilla!)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

 Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To prep for rolling, lay a piece of parchment on the counter and dust with flour.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 30 seconds.
3. While the mixer is still on medium speed, add in egg, vanilla and almond extract.
4. Once mixed, add in baking powder, salt, and flour.
   *Add flour 1/2 cup at a time on low speed
5. Once mixture is combined and all the flour disappears, transfer dough to the piece of floured parchment paper. Roll dough until it becomes a large smooth ball and flatten into a 2” puck. 
6. Roll dough to 3/8″-1/2″ thick with a rolling pin.
7. Use your Frosted Sprinkles cookie cutters to cut out shapes and transfer to a parchment baking sheet.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake. Depending on size, cookies may look underdone at 10 minutes, but I recommend removing them from the oven before seeing any brown on the edges. If you've used a medium/large cutter and made them 1/2" thick, you may need to bake for a few extra minutes.
9. Once baked, remove from oven and place pan on a cooling rack. Do not remove cookies from hot pan. Let them rest on the hot pan for 10-15 minutes to finish baking before removing from the pan.
10. Once completely cooled, top with frosting. See notes section below for frosting ideas.
11. Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days or freeze for later.