Disclosure: This post is brought to you by McCormick. All opinions are my own personal and honest thoughts.
The past few weeks our family has been busy decorating the house for Christmas, wrapping presents, and of course decorating holiday sugar cookies! I loved this time of the year as a child and even more now that I have two little boys of my own to share the memories with. Instead of the usual sugar cookie recipe we make every year, we decided to try the Spiced Holiday Sugar Cookies Recipe from McCormick.
With a snowstorm brewing I thought it would be the perfect time to spend some time with the boys baking. They love to help me bake, especially when they know the finished product will be delicious. We pulled out a bunch of Christmas cookie cutters and after letting the dough set in the fridge for a couple hours we rolled it out and started cutting away. Christmas trees, snowmen, gingerbread men, bells, reindeer, wreaths and a squirrel per Tyler’s request.
Once the cookies were cooled it was time to decorate. Instead of the usual sprinkles that we decorate with we iced the cookies. I always see these iced cookies at holiday parties and every year I say I need to make them, this year I finally did and I’m glad I tried them, they came out delicious. We’ll be sharing the cookies with friends and family that visit over the next few days and already have plans to bake up another batch of Spiced Holiday Sugar Cookies next week to share with Santa!
Ingredients
- 2 1/3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon McCormick® Cinnamon Ground
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Nutmeg Ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 2 teaspoons McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
Colorful Cookie Icing:
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 3 teaspoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract
- 3 drops McCormick® Assorted Food Colors & Egg Dye
Instructions
- Mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat granulated sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Refrigerate dough 2 hours or overnight until firm.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface* to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into shapes with favorite cookie cutters. Place on greased baking sheets.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
- For the Icing, mix all ingredients except food colors. (Stir in additional milk as needed to thin icing or more confectioners' sugar to thicken, if needed.) Place small amount of icing into small shallow bowls, using one bowl for each color desired. Stir drops of food color into icing until desired shade is reached.
- To ice cookies, hold cookie by its edge and dip top of cookie into icing. (Or spoon the icing onto cookie using a teaspoon.) Place iced cookies on wire rack set over foil-covered baking sheet to dry. (The foil-covered baking sheet will catch drips.) To add decorative details to cookies, spoon tinted icing into resealable plastic bag. Snip off a tiny piece of the corner. Squeeze icing through hole in plastic bag to decorate cookies. If desired, Colored Sugar may be sprinkled onto freshly iced cookies.
Do you decorate cookies for the holidays?