1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 t. vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, then vanilla, then gradually add flour salt and baking soda. Put the dough into a Ziploc bag and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Then roll out & cut into holiday shape of choice. I put my cookies on the pan in the fridge for 10-20 minutes before baking and it helps them to hold their shapes better. Bake for 10 minutes at 350. cool completely before frosting.
We also like our sugar cookies chilled, so in the winter we store them covered on the front porch, aka God's Fridge.
I generally frost mine with traditional whipped buttercream, but here's Adrienne's recipe that makes pretty cookies as well as yummy ones:
Yummy butter cream frosting
1/2 cup butter softened
1t vanilla
1/4 t salt
1/3-1/2 cup EVAPORATED milk
4 cups powdered sugar
Beat the butter until fluffy, add additional ingredients, alternate adding powdered sugar and milk until desired consistency, should be thin enough to spread so the frosting appears smooth on the top of the cookie. The frosting will harden slightly and you can used a pastry bag to pipe on additional decorations.
Recipe from Adrienne Parker Murdock
