This is book six of our 12 Books of Christmas series:

One of our favorite Christmas traditions (and one we do every. single. year.) is to make these Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies.  They are the best!  My mom found this recipe in a cookbook from the 70s, and we started making them when I was in high school (we have made them every year since then)!   I’ve passed the tradition onto my girls, and they’ve started asking to make them every year, too.

These really are my absolute favorite soft sugar cookies. They are nice and moist — not crunchy like most sugar cookies.  They do need a nice cream cheese frosting, because on their own, they are not super sweet…the cream cheese frosting gives them just the right yumminess!

Because this is part of our 12 Books of Christmas series, we read The Gift of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Daley Mackall before baking.  This book is set in the Depression era and is a great reminder of the spirit of giving and what Christmas is all about.  With his father away looking for work at Christmas time, Jack is sad that Christmas won’t be the same.  When he smells cookies baking in his home, it lifts his spirits–maybe they will actually have something special for Christmas.  Unfortunately, he learns the cookies aren’t for his family and are, instead, for the needy at church.  Although he is disappointed, Jack later has the opportunity to help someone in need and gain a new perspective on the season.  The book also includes a sugar cookie recipe, but we prefer our tried-and-true traditon of making the soft old-fashioned sugar cookies with our secret ingredient (sour cream)!!

The Best Old Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe

This recipe makes approximately 48 sugar cookies (depending on the size of your cookie cutters).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup shortening or butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup sour cream (for a dairy-free version, substitute dairy-free yogurt)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 5 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp. salt

1)  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Cream together room-temperature butter and sugar.

2)  In another bowl, beat the eggs.  Add sour cream and vanilla.  Stir.

3.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in another bowl.

4)  Alternately add dry mixture to sugar mixture and wet mixture to sugar mixture.  Stir.  Repeat.  This does get difficult to stir, so I usually let the girls stir for a little bit, and then I finish.  Place dough in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

5)  On a floured surface, roll out the mixture about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut shapes with cookie cutters (we use this set).  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and cook for approximately eight minutes (until bottoms are just barely browned).  Allow to cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet before moving to a cooling rack.

Here’s a photo of us making these same soft sugar cookies last year in our old house.  Such great memories!

Once the cookies are cook, you are ready to frost and decorate.  Because I had to put so much effort into helping my five-year-old niece decorate the cookies, I didn’t really get a photo of that process.  It was messy.  Really messy.  🙂

Anyway, these old fashioned sugar cookies are best with cream cheese frosting.  We were able to frost all of our cookies with one batch of frosting, but we didn’t get very intricate.  Mostly plop on frosting, cover with sprinkles, and eat!!

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1/2 c. butter
• 4 c. powdered sugar
• 2 t. vanilla

Allow cream cheese and butter to soften at room temperature.  Cream together.  Stir in vanilla.  Stir in powdered sugar until you reach desired consistency.

We’ve also made this soft sugar cookie recipe at different times of the year.  Once we even made Name Cookies so the girls could learn to spell their names in a fun way.