The holiday cut-out tableVanilla · cold dough · bright shapes
Six ingredients, one hour cold
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Amanda Bennett’s classic holiday sugar cookies keep the formula spare: six pantry ingredients, one full hour in the refrigerator, and a table ready for cutters and decorations.
Decorated cut-outs show the holiday finish. Bennett’s source recipe supplies the vanilla cookies but no icing formula, leaving the decoration to the baker.Photo by Julie Anne Workman · CC BY-SA 3.0
Chill
1 hour
Oven
375°F
Bake
10–15 min
Yield
24 cookies
The pleasure here is the assembly line. Amanda Bennett’s 2013 dough is deliberately plain enough to become a tree, a star, or a snowflake without competing with the hands at the table. Butter or margarine, sugar, vanilla, eggs, baking powder, and sifted flour make the whole canvas.
Its most important ingredient is time in the refrigerator. The one-hour pause turns soft creamed dough into something a cutter can lift, then the hot oven gives only a narrow decision window. Pull the shapes when the centers are set and the rims are barely gold; the decorations can be exuberant, but the cookie underneath should stay tender.
“A Classic cookie, every body loves for the holidays. They are fun to make, decorate and share!”
Keep the slab cold
A full hour in the refrigerator firms the fat so cutters lift cleaner shapes and the dough spreads less before its edge sets.
Flour with restraint
Use just enough flour on the paper and cutters to prevent sticking. Every heavy dusting works into the scraps and toughens the next roll.
Stop at pale gold
The source allows a broad 10–15-minute window. Set centers and the first color at the edge are better signals than a deeply browned top.
The cut-out structureFat air binder flour
Six pantry ingredients divide into four jobs
The original proportions stay intact. Better definition comes from understanding the jobs already built into the short list.
01
Butter or margarine
One cup supplies tenderness and the fat that firms during the source’s one-hour chill. The original explicitly allows either choice.
Use softened butter or stick margarine, not a high-water tub spread, and keep the choice consistent through the batch.02
Granulated sugar
A one-to-one cup measure with the fat sweetens the dough and helps the creamed mixture hold small pockets of air.
Beat until the mixture looks pale and fluffy, then scrape the bowl before the well-beaten eggs enter.03
Eggs and vanilla
Two eggs bind a flour-heavy cut-out dough while two teaspoons vanilla give the plain cookie its only aromatic note.
Beat the eggs first and add them to the creamed fat gradually so the mixture stays even rather than slick or separated.04
Sifted flour and baking powder
Three and a half cups build a sturdy canvas; two teaspoons baking powder keep it lighter than an unleavened butter cookie.
Mix only until the last dry pockets disappear. Extra beating and repeated flouring both make the cut-outs less tender.
The cutter preflightFat cold shapes clean
Set the table before the dough gets soft
Rolling goes quickly when the cold slab, matched cutters, prepared sheets, and clean decorating zone are ready first.
From flour to snowflakesPress lift bake cool
The rough slab becomes the bright part
Cold dough, a lightly floured surface, and close-packed cutters turn one slab into more clean shapes with fewer rerolls.Photo by Nenad Stojković · CC BY 2.0
The efficient cut
Nest shapes closely, lift with a thin spatula, and reroll scraps gently. Less handling leaves more tenderness for the finished cookie.
Icing belongs only on fully cooled cookies. These snowflakes illustrate one optional finish rather than an icing included in the source formula.Photo by Kristin Ausk · CC BY-SA 2.0
The one-hour rhythmCream combine chill roll bake cool
A short mix surrounds one long pause
Most of the clock belongs to cold. Keep the active steps brief so flour and warm hands do not toughen or soften the dough.
5 min
Cream the soft foundation
Beat the chosen fat with sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy, then incorporate the already beaten eggs.
2–3
Bring in the dry mix
Sift flour, combine it with baking powder, and add gradually only until the dough has no floury seams.
1 hour
Let cold create control
Cover and chill flat slabs until they hold an edge and release cleanly from lightly floured paper.
1/4 in
Roll for sturdy shapes
Keep the second slab cold, roll the first evenly, and nest floured cutters closely to limit scraps.
10–15
Watch the smallest cut-outs
Bake at 375°F until centers set and edges barely color, removing early finishers rather than waiting for the whole sheet to brown.
Cool
Finish before decorating
Rest two minutes on the sheet, move to a rack, and wait until the cookies are cold before any icing goes on.
The baker’s evidenceFluffy cohesive cold pale
Four reads protect a tender cut-out
The dough and cookie show when to stop mixing, start cutting, and leave the oven without relying on decoration to hide a hard bake.
01
Fluffy cream, not melted fat
The fat should accept air while holding its shape. A glossy liquid mixture cannot build the same tender structure.
02
Soft dough with no dry seams
After the flour enters, the mass should come together cleanly without looking wet. Stop mixing at that point.
03
Cold edge under the cutter
A lifted shape should keep its corners and release from the paper. If it stretches, return the slab to the refrigerator briefly.
04
Set center, barely golden rim
The surface loses its damp look while the edge takes only a whisper of color. Deep gold means a crisper cookie.
The holiday switchboardFat thickness shape decoration
Choose the finish without changing the cookie
The original recipe leaves room for the table’s traditions. These choices stay inside its six-ingredient identity.
Fat
Butter or stick margarine
Butter gives fuller flavor; margarine can change spread. Both belong to the source, but high-water tub spreads do not behave predictably.
Thickness
One quarter inch for decorating
This researched guide makes a sturdy cookie. Roll thinner for crispness only with the expectation of a different yield and earlier doneness.
Shapes
Simple cutters for sharper edges
Baking powder gives lift, so stars, trees, hearts, and rounds retain their identity more reliably than very fine filigree.
Finish
Plain, sugared, glazed, or iced
The source invites decorating but provides no topping formula. Cool completely and choose a finish that suits the occasion.
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Amanda Bennett’s six-ingredient vanilla cut-outs, chilled for one hour, rolled on lightly floured paper, and baked just to a pale edge.
Set a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375°F (191°C). Lightly grease the baking sheets as the source directs. If the dough will chill longer than the oven needs to preheat, wait to turn the oven on until the final 20–30 minutes of chilling.
Beat the eggs well in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the softened butter or margarine with the sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. Beat in the eggs until the mixture is even.
Sift the all-purpose flour, then whisk it with the baking powder. Add the dry ingredients gradually to the creamed mixture on low speed, stopping as soon as no dry pockets remain. The finished dough should be cohesive and soft rather than sticky.
Cover the dough and refrigerate for 1 hour. For easier rolling, divide it into two flat slabs before chilling. The dough is ready when it feels cool and firm enough to hold an edge under a cutter.
Work with one slab at a time and keep the rest cold. Roll on lightly floured waxed paper, as the source specifies. A 1/4-inch thickness makes sturdy decorating cookies; use only enough flour to prevent sticking so the rerolled scraps do not turn tough.
Dip the cutters lightly in flour, cut the shapes close together, and lift them with a thin spatula onto the prepared baking sheets. Gather scraps gently and reroll only as needed. Similar-size shapes should share a sheet so they finish together.
Bake for 10–15 minutes, following the source range, until the centers look set and the edges are only beginning to turn pale gold. Start checking the smallest or thinnest shapes at 10 minutes and remove any that finish ahead of the rest.
Let the cookies settle on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before adding any icing, glaze, or colored sugar decoration; the source leaves that finish to the baker.
Source and technique references: Amanda Bennett’s October 28, 2013 My Recipe Magic card for the author, description, 24-cookie yield, exact six-ingredient formula, one-hour chill, rolling surface, cutter treatment, oven temperature, and bake range; the King Arthur Baking Test Kitchen’s classic cut-out cookie recipe for a pale-edge doneness cue, rack cooling, one-week airtight storage, and three-month dough freezing; PJ Hamel’s cut-out cookie guide for the sturdy quarter-inch option, light flouring, efficient cutting, and thin-spatula transfer; and the FDA’s raw flour and dough guidance for no tasting, cold holding, separation, and cleanup. No ingredient quantity, yield, chill, oven temperature, or source bake range was changed; the added thickness, doneness, storage, and safety cues are identified as researched guidance.
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