Weather: 15 degrees, before sunrise (it’s 9:10 a.m. as I’m typing this).
What I’m listening to: Nutcracker Suite

On Saturday, my two boys and some of our friends went to cut down Alaskan Christmas trees. This isn’t your typical tree-cutting experience. This tree-cutting involves full snow gear, snow-machines, and sleds. It’s quite the winter adventure.

Yesterday, we put up our tree. And no tree-trimming is complete at our place without Christmas music playing and sugar cookies waiting for hard-working helpers.

Everyone needs a yummy and reliable sugar cookie recipe. This is mine. It’s quick, easy to work with, and if your butter is relatively cool when you make the dough, you don’t need to chill it before rolling. I had sugar cookies whipped out in less than 30 minutes. They’re tender and hold up to frosting and decorating very well. Not a single one from this batch broke. And, let’s not forget the most important thing – they taste like a Christmas Cookie should taste, buttery and soft… with that little something special.

Frost and decorate the cookies the way you desire – royal icing, butter frosting, or with sprinkles. For my moose cookies, I whipped up a fluffy milk chocolate butter frosting.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

1c butter, slightly softened
1c powdered sugar
1 egg
1t almond extract
1t vanilla
1/2t salt
2-1/2c flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease baking sheets. *The number of baking sheets you'll need and cookies this dough will make depends entirely on the size of your cookie cutters. I got 2 dozen large moose cookies out of this batch.

Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add powdered sugar, followed by egg, and extracts. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Mix again until smooth.

Gradually add flour and salt. Beat until mixture comes together and forms a ball of dough.

Turn dough out onto a floured work surface and roll dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. *There is no leavening in this recipe (to maintain shape and detail from the cookie cutter), so the thickness will remain about the same after baking. Be careful not to roll too thin. Cut with cookie cutters and carefully transfer to baking sheets.

Bake for 8 minutes, or until set but not brown. Allow to cool 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Frost or decorate as desired.