Sugar Cookies

One of our favorite things to do when October comes around is make Halloween cut-out sugar cookies.  It took me several attempts to get the perfect recipe - I wanted a cookie that I could cut-out and wouldn't expand too much in the oven.  So here it is:

1 cup sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 tbsp. milk
3 cups flour

Combine sugar and butter in a mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the egg, salt, milk and continue to mix.  Combine the flour with the baking powder in separate bowl.  Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients 1 cup at a time - making sure each cup is well mixed before adding the next.  After all the flour is mixed in and you have a nice dough formed you can either wrap the dough in plastic wrap or put in an airtight container. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Baking:  Preheat oven to 375
When you are ready to cut out the cookies roll out the dough on a floured surface - I like to use 1/2 powdered sugar and 1/2 flour on the surface for rolling.  Roll the dough out to 1/4" thick, then cut out using your favorite cookie cutter.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until just light brown around the edges.  Cool on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before decorating.  I like to use buttcream frosting for icing the cookies, recipe to soon follow.  Store the cookies in an airtight container.

Ideas for decorating:
Candy Corn
M&Ms
Icing colors - orange, white, black, bright green (mix green and yellow), yellow, purple
Sprinkles
We use a small pastry spatula for spreading the icing and pastry bag with a #3 tip for the the small details.