Sugar Cookie Recipe - Olathe,KS

WILTON SUGAR COOKIES

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375° F. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add baking powder and flour one cup at a time, mixing after addition. The dough will be very stiff; blend last flour in by hand. Do not chill. Reserve 1/2 cup of dough for decorating. Divide dough into 2 balls. On a floured surface, roll each ball in a circle approximately 12" in diameter and 1/8" thick.

Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use. Pipe cookies with colored outline. (See directions below) Bake cookies on ungreased cookie sheet on middle rack of oven for 8-12 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Remove from sheet and cool on wire rack.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies

ETA: Outlining Sugar Cookies with Piped Colored Dough:

Tint 1/2 cup of reserved cookie dough with Wilton Icing Colors. Dough should be tinted according to color preference. Dough color will lighten when baked. Thin desired shade of tinted dough with 1 teaspoon of water at a time until it can be piped through a Wilton #2 Round Tip. Place dough in a bag fitted with tip. Outline and pipe in desired designs. Bake according to Sugar Cookie Recipe.

Note: Cookies are decorated and then baked.

Wilton has the best cookie recipe I know. It came on the packaging for a cookie mold, but I'm sure you can find it on their website.

I made the letter pressed sugar cookies from this link :
http://fredandfriends.com/blog/view/cookies

in my case, I grated in orange zest and squeezed in some of the juice. They came out really well.. They aren't overly sweet and the orange zest really gave them a fresh taste.. I'd definitely make the recipe again..

good luck

The Bake at 350 blog has my go-to recipes for sugar cookies and royal icing, along with great tips for making and decorating.

http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/2008/04/taste-of-yellow-yel...

ETA it's the same as the Wilton recipe except it uses almond and vanilla extracts. The almond extract adds a nice depth to the flavor.

Hint - when you roll out your dough, use powdered sugar instead of flour! (if you work in too much flour esp when re-rolling, the cookies won't taste like much!)