Classic Christmas Sugar Cookies

Holiday baking is definitely the number one thing that puts me in to the Christmas spirit. It brings back so many wonderful memories of me standing on my Noni’s green stool, laughing at the boy’s candy cane colored blobs because they handled the dough too long. This year my Mom and I decided to use the “royal icing” technique instead of the old-fashioned butter cream. Now I will say they are FAR from perfect, but they were SO yummy and soft. It was so much fun! As we baked we listened to Michael Bublé’s Pandora station, giggled and created new memories together.

We are determined to find the perfect recipe, so each year we try something different. However, the recipe we used this go-around  was the closest to perfect we have come across thus far! We snagged the recipe from a blog post titled “Perfect Frosted Sugar Cookies” on the blog Wholefully. We prepared our dough the day before, wrapped it in Chic Wrap and stored it in the fridge over night until it was time to roll it out! This way it is easier to handle the dough and the cookie will not expand while baking.

On a side note I want to tell you all about this AMAZING plastic wrap, or Chic Wrap. For as long as I can remember plastic wrap and I have never been friends. But after using this Chic Wrap it totally changed my point of view! The quality of the plastic wrap seems thicker and instead of having to rip off the amount you need it has a small blade that cuts it for you perfectly every time! (I have linked their how-to videos here.) How nifty is that! They not only make plastic wrap but they make parchment paper as well, which is used in this post as well. This is sold locally at Payne & Payne Home N’ Suchlike in Center, Texas. I am telling you the chef in your life would LOVE this for Christmas! It would also make a great hostess gift!

The adorable ornament cookie cutters we chose to use came in the cutest boxing, and of course the bubble light cookie cutter is close to my heart. My Noni has had the same bubble lights for as long as I remember and I look forward to them every year. These cutters are also from Payne & Payne!

As we baked and ‘attempted’ to decorate with the royal icing we decided that our perfectionism and patience are some of the reasons this seemed so difficult! We have a whole new respect for those who decorate cookies professionally! Here is the link we used as a guide for the royal icing technique from Life, Love and Sugar.

I hope you have found some inspiration and gift ideas to kick off your Christmas spirit! Be on the lookout for more holiday baking tips, tricks and ideas!

XO, Ashton