You may recognize these Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing as my Halloween Sugar Cookies and you’re right. They’re exactly the same. But somehow, when I was looking at the page to make our Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing to give to friends, it simply didn’t feel right. I figured that if I was having a hard time using Halloween pictures to make Christmas cookies, well, probably you were having a hard time, too. Or even worse, not using Dirty Laundry Kitchen to make your Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing at all. Imagine my horror. Today, might have been my favorite time to date making these Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing, because my daughter and her daycare class all helped me out in the kitchen. Each child stamped out their own cookie, waited patiently as they baked, and then tromped back to school where these (unfrosted) cookies were the afternoon snack. Meanwhile I decorated the rest of these Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing. Since I forgot how intense the gel food coloring I use is, I ended up with some seriously intense colors this year. But I really like them. And I may have eaten a couple while fantasizing about the many years ahead of watching Leisel be in charge of these Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing.
Old School Sugar Cookies with Almond Icing
Ingredients
- ¼ pound butter
- ¾ cup sugar plus more for rolling them out
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ¼ cups flour plus more for rolling them out
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
American buttercream frosting
- ½ teaspoon almond extract and food coloring
- 1 stick butter
- 4 + cups powdered sugar
- milk to adjust the consistency
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract. Beat well.
- Add salt and baking powder. Mix well.
- Add the flour in two additions. You may add a tablespoon of milk if you think it’s too dry.
- Press into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Roll out the dough on a sugar and flour mix.
- Stamp out the cookies in lots of festive shapes.
- Place them on a lined baking sheet (this protects them from being over cooked on the bottom). Bake 8-10 minutes. For a softer cookie, roll them thicker. For a crisp cookie, roll thin.
- Let cool.
- Make the buttercream.
- Decorate with candy, gel pens, frosting, anything edible!
Notes
Can you see the tiny gold stars on these polar bears? I think I’ve always made my polar bears blue, at least when it comes to sugar cookies, but this year I really loved these polar bear constellation cookies. This is part of what I really love about holiday traditions- it’s never really the same game twice and I love finding that childlike joy of remembering all the years past but adding the experience of another attempt.
What a pleasure!