Easy Holiday Sugar Cookies Recipe by America’s test kitchen

Everyone knows that a sugar cookie contains sugar as the main ingredient. Other ingredients include flour, vanilla, butter, eggs, and baking soda (or sometimes, baking powder). But most people might not have the cooking skills that are important for preparing delicious and mouthwatering sugar cookies. If you’re looking to prepare some delicious and easy holiday sugar cookies for up to 24 guests, be sure to use our America’s test kitchen sugar cookies recipe.

We made sure our sugar cookies tasted great and had no graininess by using superfine sugar. For this part, you can use a food processor to finely grind granulated sugar for that perfect crisp and sturdy texture.

We also used cream cheese as an ingredient to make our sugar cookies. This unusual ingredient made sure that the cookies were tender and rich but not-too-sweet flavor. So, be sure to read on for more info on how to make excellent sugar cookies for holidays.

Sugar Cookies Recipe by America’s test kitchen

Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups of unbleached, all-purpose flour.
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda.
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
• ½ teaspoon of table salt.
• 1 ½ cups of sugar.
• 1/3 cup of sugar for rolling.
• 2 ounces of cream cheese that are cut into 8 pieces.
• 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted and warmed.
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil.
• 1 large egg.
• 1 tablespoon of milk.
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Directions of preparation

1. First, start by adjusting the oven rack to the middle position. Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While preheating the oven, line 2, large rimmed baking sheets with some parchment paper. Also, be sure to whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl and set the mixture aside.
2. Place sugar and cream cheese in a large bowl. You will also have to pour the warm butter over the cream cheese and sugar then whisk the three ingredients to perfectly combine. There might be small lumps of cream cheese forming but this should not worry you as they will smooth out later. You will place 1/3 cup of sugar in a pie plate or shallow baking dish and set it aside.
3. Whisk in oil in the large bowl and do this until the oil is well incorporated. Then, add egg, milk, and vanilla and continue whisking until you get a smooth mixture. You can then add flour mixture to the large bowl and mix everything up with a rubber spatula until you have a soft, homogenous dough.
4. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces. You can scoop 2 tablespoons of dough for this part. Roll each piece into a ball using your hands. Roll the balls in reserved sugar to coat them. Once done, you can set the balls on the baking sheet, making sure that each baking sheet has 12 dough balls.
5. Flatten the dough balls so they have 2 inches diameters. You can use the bottom of a drinking glass for this part. Sprinkle 4 teaspoons of the remaining sugar on top of the flattened dough. And make sure to evenly sprinkle the sugar. You can sprinkle 2 teaspoons of sugar per baking sheet. If there is any sugar remaining, you can discard it.
6. Put the dough on the baking sheets inside the oven. You will need to place the baking sheets into the oven one at a time. And bake the sugar cookies for 11-13 minutes. By the end of this time frame, the cookies might begin to brown and their edges will set. Rotate the baking sheets with the dough after 7 minutes.  Then, you can let the sugar cookies on the baking sheets cool for 5 minutes.
7. Transfer the sugar cookies to a wire rack using a wide metal spatula. And let the sugar cookies cool further to room temperature. If you are looking to make sugar cookies for holidays, you can try out this amazing recipe by America’s Test Kitchen.

You can always make your sugar cookies soft and chewy if you use this recipe. Of course, the trick lies in using the right ingredients. If you are wondering why your sugar cookies might have the chewy texture, it is because of the white granulated sugar.

Also, sugar is naturally chewy and this is part of the reason why your sugar cookies for holiday will have the chewy texture or feel. Sugar makes the dough for sugar cookies have more moisture content. And this is another reason why the cookies will have a chewy texture.

If you want to prevent your cookies from turning out dry or becoming too cakey, you should use both baking soda and baking powder as ingredients. But you will have to use a bit more baking soda than baking powder. Mixing the ingredients in the right ratio is very important here.

When making the sugar cookies, do not overbeat butter and sugar when making the dough. This is important if you want less air in the dough. Avoiding much air in the dough is crucial when it comes to preventing the cookies from rising and then falling flat when baking them.

The nutritional content of sugar cookies

14g carbohydrates, 1g of protein, 5g of fat, 3g of saturated fat, 18mg of cholesterol, 79mg of sodium, 17mg of potassium, 8g of sugar, 165IU of Vitamin A, 6mg of Calcium, and 0.4mg of Iron. As such, sugar cookies are loaded with essential nutrients that will benefit the body.

If you are looking to make sugar cookies for your guest during holidays, you can use this recipe by America’s Test Kitchen. Making delicious sugar cookies becomes easier if you have a recipe that shows all the details.

Fortunately, this recipe details every step to help you get the most out of the ingredients. Now, you can use this recipe to make easy holiday sugar cookies for everyone planning to attend a special party. Besides, this recipe works to improve your cooking skills. As such, you can transform your cooking by following the instruction in this recipe!