3 cups (400 grams)All-purpose FlourI use Gold Medal
2teaspoonsBaking Powder
1teaspoonCream of Tartar
2TablespoonInstant Vanilla Pudding Mix
Sugar Cookie Creamed Ingredients
2 sticks (8 ounces)Salted Buttersoft to the touch, but not melted
1 cup (200 grams)Sugar
2largeEggs
1TablespoonVanilla Extract
½teaspoonAlmond Extract
Buttercream Ingredients
2 sticks (8 ounces)Salted Butterat room temperature
½ cup (3.4 ounces)Butter Flavored ShorteningI use Crisco butter flavor shortening sticks
48 grams (½ cup)Nonfat Milk Powder
3 TablepoonsWarm Water
4teaspoonsPure Vanilla ExtractI recommend pure vanilla in the buttercream, but imitation may be used in the cookie dough
5 ¼ cups (680 grams)Powdered Sugar
Instructions
Make the Sugar Cookie Dough
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Whisk the Dry Ingredients until well mixed and set aside.
Using a stand mixer (preferred) or handheld mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the soft butter and sugar just until the butter is light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed.
Add the egg and vanilla and almond extracts. Continue to beat on medium--the mixture will separate at first but keep beating just until it comes back together to a more uniform liquid, scraping the bowl as needed.
On low, slowly pour the whisked dry ingredients into the dough, and continue to mix just until it is fully incorporated and a smooth and uniform dough. Avoid overbeating.
Roll out and Bake the Cut-out Cookies
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the sugar cookie dough to ⅜ of an inch thickness and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on parchment-paper lined sheet pans or cookie sheets.
Bake the cookies in the preheated 325-degree oven on the middle or top rack (avoid the bottom rack) for 10 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are only lightly golden, and the tops of the cookies have lost most of their shine. Cookies that are rolled out thinner and smaller shapes will take less time in the oven. Avoid overcooking--the cookies will still have a slight shine and may look slightly underdone. They will continue to bake on the tray after they are removed from the oven.
Make the Buttercream
Whisk the nonfat milk powder, warm water, and pure vanilla together to rehydrate the milk. Allow it to set for 5-10 minutes so that the milk powder can dissolve, and whisk again until there are no lumps. (If you notice any lumps, you can strain it through a fine mesh strainer.)
Using a stand mixer (preferred) or handheld mixer, blend the room-temperature butter and butter-flavored shortening until it is smooth with no lumps, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Slowly add the powdered sugar while the mixer is on low, then add the rehydrated milk and vanilla mixture. Blend the buttercream on high for at least two minutes--this will add air into the buttercream and make it nice and fluffy.
Dye your buttercream with gel food color and use it to decorate your cooled cut-out sugar cookies. Enjoy!
Notes
This frosting is a pale ivory color (as pictured). If you need a whiter frosting, you can add a liquid whitener. I recommend only adding this to the frosting that needs to be white, as frosting dyed with other colors will not need the whitener.