Xandra's best no-chill sugar cookie recipe is so good you won't know whether to eat them or frame them. These no-fail sugar cookies are easy to make and bake up perfectly every single time. The best part about this easy cookie recipe is that there is no chill time involved; just mix, roll, cut, and bake.
Tools for Cookie Making
Having the right tools before you begin takes the stress out of holiday baking. Xandra suggests these handy baking tools:
Good quality baking sheets and mats help your sugar cookies bake evenly and thoroughly.
A whisk is all that is needed to put together the glaze for these sugar cookies.
A pastry decorating set allows you to pipe on extra decorations and make your delicious sugar cookies look like they came from a bakery.
An offset spatula is essential for evenly frosting cookies if you're using a buttercream frosting. They also can be used to move glazed cookies while they set up.
How to Make the Best No-Chill Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter* (2 sticks), room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine flour and baking powder. Set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and extracts.
- Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just combined. Scrape bowl well.
- Dump mixture onto a lightly floured surface. Roll out and cut.
- Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.
- Remove cookies from the oven and leave them on the baking tray until cool.
*Xandra's note about butter. Use salted butter if you have it. But, if you are using unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon a salt to your dry ingredients.
Glaze for cookies
Ingredients:
- 3 C sifted powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions:
- Mix well until it is the consistency that it takes 10 seconds for “ribbons” to “melt” totally into the glaze.
- Dip cooled cookies into glaze and allow to dry for about 4-6 hours before decorating.
How to Decorate Frosted or Glazed Sugar Cookies
We could hardly believe how easy it was to make these gorgeous sugar cookies. Xandra's pastry & baking background makes decorating a cinch for her and during our cookie demos at the store over the weekend, she showed us all her secrets.
To make the lovely "watercolor" sugar cookie trees:
- New, clean, and unused paint brushes
- Gel food coloring & water to mix in
- New, clean, unused artist's paint palette
- Edible gold leaf sheets (purchase online or at a cake decorating supply store)
- Glazed cookies that have dried and are ready to decorate (usually 4-6 hours)
On the artist palette, mix a tiny bit of water into a dab of the gel food coloring. Mix well. Use the paint brush to paint on the cookie. While the "paint" is still wet, use the paintbrush to apply the edible gold leaf. 
Use a piping bag to add a thicker consistency icing around the perimeter of the cookie. Pipe lines in a zigzag fashion to resemble garland. While icing is still wet, sprinkle with nonpareils.
For no-stress decorating, use prepackaged tubes of piping icing you can pick up in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
These adorable sugar cookies have a notch cut out so you can add them to the rim of your mug! Simply use the Over the Edge Christmas Cookie Cutters to easily make them.
We'd love to know if you give these delicious and easy sugar cookies a try this holiday season. Post your creations and tag us on the socials.
Use the hashtag:
And, be sure to save this to your favorite Pinterest board and share with friends!