Soft Almond Sugar Cookies

A holiday favorite Soft Almond Sugar Cookie Snowflakes are beautiful to look at and delicious to eat, made with a soft and buttery almond sugar cookie base, royal icing glaze and shaped into the a winter wonderland of colorful snowflakes!   

Is is even the holiday if sugar cookies are not on your table?  A staple for the season for sure, but as delicious as they are to eat, they are equally as beautiful to serve.  I have always been a shortbread girl, but this Almond Sugar Cookie recipe is a perfect combination of my butter shortbread cookie and the soft sugar cookie.  There is a slight crisp to the edges, soft and buttery center and a delicate almond flavor so you get the best of both worlds.  I have loved creating so many amazing christmas cookies this season, but it wouldn’t be complete without a cut out and decorated winter wonderland of snowflake cookies.

What Makes The Perfect Sugar Cookie
Sugar cookies are a staple all year long, but I especially love them around the holiday season.  There is so much versatility in making these cookies extra special, starting with snowflake cookie cutters and a creamy and smooth royal icing for decoration.  The base for a classic sugar cookie starts with flour, butter, sugar (granulated or powdered sugar), egg and vanilla extract.  I love the addition of almond extract to this recipe to make them a little extract special.  Almond Sugar Cookies are made with a dough that is perfect for rolling out and using cookie cutters.  Once the cookies are baked, royal icing will glaze the top of each cookie making a colorful and festive design!

Ingredients To Make Cookies

Almond Sugar Cookie Dough
Unsalted Butter
Powdered Sugar
Almond Extract
Vanilla Extract
All Purpose Flour
Egg

Royal Icing
Powdered Sugar
Pasteurized Egg Whites
Vanilla Extract
Food Coloring

How To Make Almond Sugar Cookies

Prepare the Almond Sugar Cookie Dough

• Cream together the butter and powdered sugar
• Add the egg, almond extract and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and mix until fully combined
• Add the flour into the butter mixture and mix just until combined
• On a lightly floured surface, remove the dough from the mixing bowl and gently knead until it comes together
• Shape the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the dough to rest

Bake the Almond Sugar Cookie

• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to ⅛-¼ inch thick, cut the dough using a variety of size snowflake cookie cutters and place on a prepared baking sheet
• Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes (cookies will have very slight golden color only on the edges, you want the centers to be soft)
• Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely before icing

Prepare the Royal Icing

• In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, whisk together the powdered sugar, egg whites and vanilla extract until fully combined, creamy

*The icing should be thick enough to create a ribbon texture when you lift a spoon of icing from the bowl and then it should lay flat once it has settled back into the bowl

*You don’t want the icing to liquid or it will spread off of the cookie and not keep its shape

Decorate and Ice the Snowflake Almond Sugar Cookies

• Diving the royal icing into 4 bowls and mix each bowl of royal icing with the food coloring of your choice
• Fill pastry bags with each individual color of royal icing; set aside
•  Using a very fine round tip or cut the pastry bag to be a very fine point, outline the perimeter of all of the snowflake cookies and allow the icing outline to dry
• Once the outline is dry, cut the hole a little bit bigger (not much) or use slightly larger tip to fill in each snowflake with the same color as the outline (the outline should prevent the icing from flowing over the edge of the cookie)
• Allow the icing base to dry, approximately 20-30 minutes before piping the snowflake detail on each cookie
• Using the same color as the base of the cookie and a very fine tip on your pastry bag, pipe the snowflake detail on each cookie. You can be creative and make each snowflake the same or different
• Allow the snowflake cookies to try before serving, stacking on a platter or packaging to gift

What Is Royal Icing
Royal icing is a white icing that is made with pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar.  This creamy icing will be soft at first but will harden over time.  When glazing cookies, royal icing creates the perfect base to add color and design to each cookie.  Using meringue powder is another option when making royal icing, but I prefer the consistency and flavor using pasteurized egg whites.  It will flow perfectly when piping and smooth out once it is set on the cookie.  The top of the cookie will create a crust and slightly harden so that the cookies can be stacked or packaged but under the crust of the icing it will stay soft.

Tips & FAQ’s About Almond Sugar Cookies

• If you don’t love almond, remove the almond extract and replace the extract with vanilla
• Be creative and try different flavors, Peppermint sugar cookies would be delicious and sugar festive over the holiday.  Simply replace the almond extract with peppermint extract
• You can use my classic Shortbread Cookie Dough in place of the Almond Sugar Cookie dough
• Chilling the Sugar Cookie Dough for 30 minutes will allow the dough to rest and will make it easier to roll out.
• If you don’t want to decorate and glaze the cookies with royal icing, you can dust the cookies with powdered sugar and they will be beautiful and delicious.
• Royal Icing can be made with meringue powder, but I prefer using pasteurized egg whites for a creamy and decadent glaze

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