- Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen
we're making some quick and easy sugar cookies.
So let's get started.
First off, we're gonna combine the dry ingredients
in a large bowl, starting off with four cups
or 480 grams of all-purpose flour.
I'm using a scale today
because the one major problem people have at home
with this recipe is over measuring the flour.
If you're using a measuring cup and scooping and leveling,
you're adding more flour in for sure.
More flour means a drier, breadier cookie
that is not as delicious.
So use a scale or sprinkle the flour
into your measuring cup and level it off.
To puff things up, I want three quarters
of a teaspoon of baking powder,
and for contrast, three quarters of a teaspoon of salt.
One note here is not to use iodized salt if possible,
a sea salt, it's gonna have a nice mellow flavor,
and if you're using diamond crystal salt,
I would use one full teaspoon
because it's a less salty salt.
Alright, grab a whisk and give it a mix.
Do you need to sift this out?
Not really.
Can you?
Yeah, you totally can.
You never know where a lump is hiding around,
but because this recipe just uses flour, baking powder
and salt, there's nothing that's gonna clump up in there,
like cornstarch or cocoa powder, notorious for clumping.
Yes, you should sift those.
But plain flour is basically fine.
Alright, that's nicely mixed.
I'm gonna set this aside and grab a stand mixer.
To the bowl of my mixer, I'm adding one cup
or 226 grams of unsalted room temperature butter.
But here's the deal, this is not really a summer recipe.
Yes, you can make sugar cookies all year round,
Valentine's Day, Easter, birthdays,
just because you want some, but most of them
are gonna be made in the winter, and the winter is cold.
So, this countertop is like ice.
It's a cold day today,
and I had my butter out for quite a while.
And this is on the coldest side
of room temperature possible, you want softened butter,
so pop it into the microwave,
50 percent power for ten second intervals,
rotating the butter.
This is nicely softened now, so I have to work fast
before it hardens again.
You can see it's very soft.
It's actually on the softer side of soft, but I give up.
I've been heating my butter, letting it sit.
It's just, it's time to move on.
To my softened butter I'm adding one cup
or 200 grams of granulated sugar.
This I'm using a measuring cup for.
And did you know that in recipes,
sugar counts as a wet ingredient?
So, just in case you were wondering.
I'm using a volume measuring cup for it.
Add that in.
We're gonna mix this up on medium
for about two minutes until it is light and fluffy.
Start on low and work your way up to medium.
This recipe is so easy and it makes a big batch of cookies.
Most of the time I'll cut out half of the cookies for us
to decorate and enjoy,
and the other half of the dough is in the freezer
so I can just pop it out later for cookies on demand.
Alright, while that mixes up,
I'm gonna crack two large room temperature eggs
into a separate bowl and check for shells.
These cookies are tender with a beautiful short texture.
You don't want any shells in there.
This looks like a beautiful white, fluffy cloud now.
The color is totally changed, it's very satisfying.
It's time to add the eggs in, one at a time.
One egg, let it mix up,
and then we're gonna scrape the bowl down
because it's definitely gonna be a mess inside of here.
Soupy on top, firm butter on the bottom.
You want it to be homogenous throughout
so all of your cookies are exactly the same.
Scrape the bowl down.
I actually do make sugar cookies all year round
because of the various holidays, birthday parties,
and, you know, my kids are always asking for cookies.
I'm gonna add the second egg in now.
You can enjoy these cookies plain, just as cutouts.
You could stamp them, which looks really pretty
and you don't have to decorate them at all.
Or you can add colored sanding sugar on top.
You could use sugar cookie icing or royal icing
and make them look beautiful.
It's totally up to you and how much time
you wanna invest in your cookies.
This looks so good, I'm gonna scrape the bowl down
one more time, and here I'm very happy
that my butter was on the melty side of room temperature,
where it's basically about to fall apart.
It mixes so much better that way.
Most of the time you want it to be firmer, but not today.
Butter and sugar tastes great,
but vanilla tastes even better.
So I'm gonna add two teaspoons in and let that mix.
Oftentimes though, I'll add a dash of peppermint extract.
You could add almond extract, orange blossom water,
rose water, any kind of flavoring tastes goodness.
So, go to town.
Set your mixer to stir,
and I'm gonna add the flour in gradually now,
the flour mixture.
I'm gonna get it all into the bowl today, no spills.
Speaking it into existence.
The main problem people have when they make cookies
is too much flour.
But the other thing that you can do is overmix the dough.
If you overmix the dough,
you will activate the proteins in the flour
and it'll give you a tougher cookie.
That's not something we want.
All into the bowl.
One second of high speed
just to knock the butter off of the beater.
And then I'm gonna finish this up by hand.
This is almost there.
Oh, by the way, if you're making this for a birthday,
you could definitely add in half a cup
of any kind of sprinkles you like
and it'll make the cookies really pretty.
They become like confetti cookies.
This is 95 percent mixed.
Just use your spatula and take a final look.
The bottom has some lurking bits of flour
and butter that are not mixed, see?
Ooh, all that flour.
The last streaks of flour disappeared.
This makes it so much easier to roll your cookies out later
because it's uniform, there'll be less cracking
and no weird gnarly, floury bits.
We're gonna dump this onto a counter
and divide the dough into two batches.
Shape each one into a disc.
Hmm, this smells really good.
And just wrap it up so it chills without drying out.
I like to use beeswax covered cloth,
but you could use parchment paper or plastic wrap too.
(bright music)
These guys are ready to chill in the fridge
for at least two hours or up to two days.
If you're chilling more than two hours,
they have to sit out at room temperature for a little bit
so they won't crack when you roll them.
We'll be right back.
Towards the end of your chill time,
pre-heat your oven to 375 so it's nice and hot.
And now we're going to sprinkle some flour
onto our work surface.
I'm using a pastry mat because nothing will stick to it
and it makes cleanup really easy.
My dough is actually a bit too firm out of the fridge,
so I let it warm up on the countertop for about 10 minutes.
More flour for the top,
and we're gonna roll this out to about a quarter of an inch.
Today I'm using a nice plain wooden roller,
but if you want, you could use a bumpered roller,
and it'll tell you exactly what one quarter of an inch is
so it's never too thin and it's always perfectly even.
If your dough's cracking too much, it's probably too cold
so just let it hang out on the countertop
for a few more minutes.
Okay, making your sugar cookies will be so much easier
if the dough doesn't stick to the countertop.
So feel free to add more flour on the bottom as needed.
And this is why a pastry mat is so convenient
'cause gravity helps you move things along.
Okay, see your dough should be moving along,
not stuck and getting torqued.
My dough looks great, I'm about to cut it out.
But first, grab rimmed baking sheets
and line them either with parchment paper or Silpats.
These are reusable and nothing will ever stick to them,
but these cookies won't stick to anything.
They're sugar cookies, right?
I'll also point out that a rimmed baking sheet gives you
a little bit of insulation from that hot air in the oven.
And I find my cookies bake more evenly in them.
So, cut your cookies out,
see, they lift right off without any problems,
and place them onto your baking sheet.
They really don't spread so you don't want to
crowd them out so they're touching,
but you can place them fairly close.
You can go online or at lots of baking stores
and they have these wonderful stamped sugar cookie cutters.
The snowflakes are my favorite
and they come out really beautiful.
The only thing you have to do is dip them in flour,
tap the excess out, and then cut.
That way nothing sticks.
Continue cutting your sugar cookies out.
You can use any shape you want,
but one rule of thumb is,
similar sized cookies bake with each other.
So I have small cookies and then I have larger cookies
and they'll bake together,
that way they're all gonna be evenly done.
If you don't, the big cookies will be raw in the middle
and the small cookies will have burnt edges,
which are delicious, but don't look great.
After baking, you can decorate these with royal icing
or sugar cookie icing, which is actually my favorite
and much easier to make.
Click up here for those videos.
But if you wanna decorate them before,
I would do the following.
Grab a teaspoon of melted butter
and just brush that on top of the cookies.
This is gonna be your glue.
And now place the cookie into some granulated sugar,
colored if you want, this is green sanding sugar.
Press gently, and you have a sparkly colored sugar cookie
with no need for further decorations,
and it's really fun to do.
(bright music)
My first batch is ready to go into the oven, 375,
for 10 to 12 minutes, but that's not true.
So listen up, it's gonna be as long as your cookies need,
until they're just getting some color at the bottom.
If you rolled your dough out really thin
and are making small cookies, that might be six minutes.
If you made big cookies and they're thicker,
it might be over 12.
So you have to keep an eye on them
and know when they're ready to come outta the oven.
Mine are going into the oven,
and because they're fairly small,
I'll start checking them at seven minutes.
In you go.
By the way, if there's only a couple cookies
on your baking sheet,
you might just bake them for five minutes.
They'll bake much faster because there's less to heat up.
I learned this the hard way.
Out of the oven, smelling amazing.
(bright music)
Just a couple basic ingredients coming together
to make some magic, it tastes perfect,
just like how you're supposed to taste sugar cookie.
I hope you had a chance to make this recipe,
and if you like this video,
check out my holiday cookie playlist.
(bright music)