The Best Sugar Cookie & Frosting Recipe

At least once a year, or more, I make sugar cookies.

I LOVE sugar cookies, my husband isn't as big a fan.

I love soft and chewy sugar cookies with frosting that tastes like ice cream!

An added benefit is that you can decorate them in any color

and you can go crazy on the time spent "coloring" the cookie with frosting.

These are very low quality photo's, but your options are endless!

I had my nieces and nephew over to decorate cookies.

I had every color of the rainbow of frosting and let them have at it.

They were very creative!

One year at Christmas, I had a friend over for cookie decorating.

So many options with sugar cookies!

With all that being said, I have the perfect Sugar Cookie recipe

and a butter cream frosting to go along with it.

BYU Sugar Cookies

(I got this recipe from my Uncle who used to work at BYU)

-1 cup Sugar
-1/2 cup Butter (1 cube) softened, but not melted
-1 egg
-1 tsp. Vanilla or Lemon Extract
  (I use Vanilla, you could even use Almond extract if you wanted)
-2 tsp. Baking Powder
-1 tsp. Baking Soda
-1/2 tsp. Salt
-3 1/2 cups Flour
-1/2 cup Milk
-Bowl of sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat Sugar, Butter, and Egg together until well mixed.
3. Add Vanilla, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, and Salt and mix again.
4. Add Flour alternately with Milk (I fill a 1/2 cup measuring cup with milk, then turn the mixer on and add 1/2 cup of flour, then approx. 1 TBSP of milk, then 1/2 cup of flour, 1 TBSP milk, etc until I have used up all the flour and all the milk).
5. Take half of dough and roll out on a floured surface about 1/4" thick (I like my cookies to be thick. You can roll the dough out thinner if you want to get more cookies out of the recipe.  This will also make them a little bit more crunchy. They will still taste yummy!)
6. Fill a bowl with sugar, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup.  I dip the cookie cutter into the sugar, then I use it on the dough. This is optional and isn't necessary.
7. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet (or a silicone covered cookie sheet if you have one, they are the BEST!)
8. Bake in oven 8-10 min.  The cookies will not be brown around the edges and the underside will be light brown.  The cookies are done at this time, but if you like them a little bit crunchier, add 1-3 min, depending on your tastes. I like my cookies thick and soft.
9. Immediately after they come out of the oven, I take pinches of sugar from the sugar bowl and sprinkle the cookies with it.
10. Let cookies cool completely before frosting, or the frosting will melt.

Holli's Buttercream Frosting 

(This frosting is great for cookies or cinnamon rolls)

-1/2 cube of butter, softened but not melted
-1 tsp. Vanilla extract
-3-4 cups Powdered Sugar (amount is approximate, depending on how much frosting you want)
-2-3 TBSP Milk, plus additional milk to reach desired consistency

1. Place butter in mixing bowl, add Vanilla, milk, and 2 cups Powdered Sugar.
2. Mix together, I use a hand mixer for this recipe (Most likely the texture will be small pea sized balls of butter coated with powdered sugar).
3. If frosting is the consistency and amount that you want, then you're done.
     If it is not the proper amount, then add 1 cup of Powdered Sugar and mix again.
4. Add 1 TBSP of Milk if frosting is too thick.  If frosting still appears too thick, fill 1 TBSP measuring spoon with Milk and add a few drops at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.  1 TBSP could be too much and make it too thin, then you would have to add more Powdered Sugar. (NEVER exceed adding more than 1 TBSP of Milk at a time.)
5. At this point, you can either separate frosting into bowls of equal portions and add food coloring, or you can add food coloring to entire batch, if you only want one color.  I like to have all colors of the rainbow when decorating cookies.
    *If you are using liquid food coloring, that can cause your frosting to be runny. After you have added the liquid coloring, mix again and see if you need to add more powdered sugar to thicken up.
     *If you are using gel food coloring, then you don't have to worry about it.
6. Once frosting is colored, add small portion (or all of one color) to one corner of a sandwich bag.  Push all the frosting down to one corner and twist bag tight around frosting.  Cut a small corner off and you have a frosting bag so kids can decorate cookies however they want.
7. Frosting will keep in sealed container in fridge for 2-3 weeks.  If you do put it in the fridge, let it sit on the counter for 1 hour to soften up, mix, and you're ready to use it again.

So easy and very delicious!