easy holiday sugar cookies

Every year I sign up to bring the sweet treats to the holiday parties which gives me an opportunity to use my beloved standing mixer and to practice my patience and tolerance as the toddlers always want to “help” in every step of the baking process.

So this year we once again made my favorite, super simple, but beautiful Snow Globe Sugar Cookies. They take just a little extra time to decorate each one, but it is always worth it! And no artistic skill is needed to make these cookies come to life.

So without further adieu, here’s how I make them:

The Ingredient List:

4 cups of all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.5 sticks of soft butter
1.5 cups of sugar
2 eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
royal icing ( 2 cups powder sugar, 2 tbl milk, and 1 egg white)
extra powder sugar for decorating
blue food coloring
Holiday icing decorations. (You can find these at Walmart, Target, Joann’s, Micheals but they do sell out quick). I got these, these, and these this year.

The Recipe:

in one bowl mix your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt
in another bowl beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.
add the eggs and the vanilla extract and beat well.
stir in the bowl of dry ingredients, a third at at time until all is added and the dough is smooth and stiff
roll out on waxed paper, lightly dusted with powder sugar, about 1/4 inch thick
cut into round cookies (I use a standard sized drinking glass to make perfect circles)
bake 350 degrees for 10 minutes
cool completely before decorating
mix two bowls or royal icing. one stays white from the sugar, the other add 1 drop of blue food coloring to give a light blue, 2 drops for a darker blue)
paint half the cookie blue for “the sky” and the other half white “snow”
immediately sprinkle on some powder sugar for the “snow”
add your Santa and Reindeer icing decoration, lightly pressing into the royal icing, and you are done!