My Sugar Cookies!

So, with a bit of research and a bit of experimenting, I finally figured out this recipe. I'm sure it is always up for improvement, but it worked wonderfully for me and made positively delicious cookies (if I may say so myself)!

Supplies:

- 1 C butter (or two sticks of butter)
- 1/2 C + 2 TBLSP of Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 TBLSP (+ 1 TSP) of Vanilla

- 3 C Flour
- 1/2 TSP of Baking Powder
- 1/4 TSP of Salt

Directions:

-Preheat your oven to 350.

- On low, beat together your butter and sugar in a large bowl. Don't be afraid to use more or less sugar, depending on your preference.

- Mix in the egg and vanilla. I always add 1 extra tsp of vanilla to the tablespoon. I think it makes them taste a bit better.

- In a separate, medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Make sure they are well blended.

- Add about 1/3 to 1/2 of the flour mix to the butter mix. Use the beaters to mix thoroughly. Add as much flour mix as possible to the butter mix intermittently until you can no longer use the beaters, then use a wooden spoon or spatula. (Or, if you're like me and supply limited, a regular kitchen spoon works perfect fine! Just don't mix too hard or it will bend the spoon... I've done that multiple times.)

- I refrigerate the dough once it's mixed up for about 15-30 minutes. This is not necessary, but I think it makes the dough easier to work with.

- After you've mixed up the dough (and possibly refrigerated it), set out strips of wax paper on your counter. Make sure you have enough to give you room to use a rolling pin and really spread out the dough. Use about 1 C of dough at a time, unless you're feeling ambitious and then do as you please! Rolling the dough is a sort of science. I always end up making it too thin or too thick. I think if you eye it and it's less than an inch and more than a millimeter, you're doing just fine!
* A tip from me: sprinkle flour on the wax paper as well as over the rolling
pin. This will help things to not stick and therefore keep the baking from
being frustrating!


- Use cookie cutters of your choice and move the shapes to a greased cookie sheet. Depending on the size of your cookies, you should be able to fit anywhere from 6-12 cookies on a sheet. Don't put them too close, but don't worry about fitting 12, either. They don't spread out much-- they just rise!


- Bake the cookies for seven minutes. If you like them a little brown on the bottom, cook them around eight or nine minutes. I like the cookies softer and crumbly, so seven minutes is the way to go if that's how you like them!

- Remove from cookie sheet to a cooling rack. If you're going to apply the frosting (which is the recipe that will follow this one), I would cool them anywhere from seven to thirty minutes. Yes, a big time span. The longer you let them cool, the easier it will be to apply the frosting.

- You are more than likely going to be reusing cookie sheets. Make sure to re-grease the cookie sheets every time you use them.

This recipe makes anywhere from 24-50 cookies. It completely depends on the size of your cookie cutters, so if you're making them for a bigger crowd, maybe double up the recipe. That is entirely up to you!