Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Step 1: Mix Dough

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. To prep for rolling, lay a piece of parchment (for easier cleanup) on the counter and sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of flour.
2. In a large mixing bowl, cream together unsalted butter (1 ½ cups; i.e. 3 sticks) and granulated sugar (1 ½ cup) on medium speed for 20-30 seconds.
3. While mixer is still on medium speed, add in eggs (2 large), vanilla extract (3 teaspoons) and almond extract (1 teaspoon) to butter mixture.
4. Once mixed, add in baking powder (2 teaspoons), salt (1 teaspoon), and all-purpose flour (4 - 4 ½ cups), ½ cup at a time, on low speed.
5. Once mixture is combined and all the flour disappears, transfer dough to lightly floured surface. Press mixture into large ball so that it is all incorporated and any loose floury pieces are pressed in. Knead 5-10 seconds until it becomes a smooth dough ball, then press into 2" thick disc.
6. Use a rolling pin to roll dough ⅜" to ½" thick.

Step 2: Cut

1. Use a snowflake cookie cutter or circle cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Transfer to a parchment baking sheet.
2. After cutting out the cookies, carefully pull away the excess dough and use an offset spatula to help lift the cut cookies up and onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. While you're lifting it up with the spatula, use your other hand to support the bottom of the cookie so that it doesn't break then gently slide it onto the baking sheet.

Tip: Dip your cookie cutter in flour between each cut. To do this, scoop about ½ cup of flour on a plate or bowl and then dip the cookie cutter into it each time you cut.

Step 3: Bake

1. Once all your cookies are cut and onto the prepared baking sheets, bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may look underdone at 11 minutes, but I recommend removing them from the oven before seeing any brown on the edges.
2. Once baked, remove from oven and place pan on a cooling rack. Do not remove cookies from hot pan. Let them rest on the hot pan for about 10 minutes to finish baking before removing from the pan.
3. After 10 minutes, remove baked cookies from pan and place on cooling rack to fully cool before frosting.

Tip: If you're using the same baking sheet for all the cookies, you want to make sure it's not too hot as you place on the next batch. Because if you put dough on a hot baking sheet, it will start to melt down and cause the cookies so spread even before baking.)

Step 4: Make Frosting & Decorate

I've included two recipes for buttercream frosting for dipping & a simple icing for dipping. Choose whichever one you prefer!

For round sugar cookies: fill a piping bag with the blue buttercream icing and add a #5 round piping tip. Pipe blue lines exactly like this video, then sprinkle with white sparkling sugar.

For dipped snowflake-shaped cookies:

1. Make a blue glaze using powdered sugar (2 cups), lukewarm water or milk (2 tablespoons), and vanilla extract (1 teaspoon) in a medium-sized bowl. Mix until smooth. Add more water or powdered sugar until it reaches your desired consistency. Dip sugar cookies and set on cooling rack.
2. Then, make white icing using powdered sugar (2 cups), vanilla extract (1 teaspoon) and milk (4 tablespoons). While the blue layer is still wet, pipe a #2 piping tip to draw interior lines (shown below).