Sugar Cookies shaped Button, Star & Leaf

Continuing with the holiday season indulgence, I am now gearing up for all kind of Christmas cakes and cookies! Last weekend, I baked these Button, Star & Leaf Cut Out Sugar Cookies, along with my little helper. You have to pardon the terrible piping skills on the cookie, but I am assuring you on the taste.

What ingredient goes in this Sugar Cookies?

These sugar cookies are really very simple, prepared with very basic ingredients:

• All purpose flour
• softened butter
• white granulated sugar
• egg
• orange zest
• baking powder
• salt

KEY points to hold the shape of the cookies:

• Use good quality butter kept at room temperature, not melted or cold.
• The butter should mix with the flour completely. If there were chunks of butter then it would melt when bakes and there by loose the shape.
• Chill the dough before rolling and cutting, and also leave the cut out cookie for about 15 minutes in the refrigerator before baking.

Cookie Cut Outs I used:

Star Cookie Cutter

Circle Cookie Cutter

Press Autumn Leaf Cookie Cutter

After a fun Thanksgiving break, we are back to our routine and today the house feels very quiet. It was not easy this morning, starting with getting out of the bed to getting out of the house. While I am the lucky one to stay at home, there is still a boatload of laundry to finish, meal to cook and work deliveries to meet. Good thing I have these cookies to brighten my mood.

I baked these sugar cookies over the weekend with my little helper. If you follow my Insta-story, you must have seen some glimpse! He had so much fun cutting these sugar cookies and I was impressed at how careful he was. Cut out sugar cookies are the best kind of baking with little toddlers. My pipping skills are not great, and so it went a little messy with the button cookies. As for the leaf, I made a quick frosting with orange color and gave Avyan my food styling brush. He absolutely loved it and now he wants to do it again.

The cookie dough comes together effortlessly and so was the rolling and cutting. I did keep the cut out cookies in the refrigerator before baking just so the shape retains. The key point while making these cookies is to keep the dough cold. It bakes to perfect soft and crumbly texture.

Here are more holiday cookies to try:

Ginger Cinnamon Molasses Cookies – 2 Ways

Almond Orange Snowflake Cookies

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

Button, Star & Leaf Cut Out Sugar Cookies

Yield: 30 to 35 small cookies

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Print

Ingredients

• ½ cup softened, not melted unsalted butter
• ¾ cup white granulated sugar
• 1 egg kept at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer using a paddle attachment, beat the butter until soft. Then add the sugar and beat once again until light and fluffy. Add the egg and orange zest and beat until combined.
2. Now sift the flour, baking powder and salt and beat just until everything comes together into rough dough. Do not over beat.
3. Divide the quantity into two clear wrap and tightly wrap the dough. (I divide in two as it is easy for me to roll individual small portions)
4. Let it sit in the refrigerator for few hours. I kept it over night.
5. When ready to roll and cut out the cookies, make enough space in your refrigerator to chill the cut out cookies before baking.
6. To roll the dough, place the dough on a big parchment paper, and place another piece of the parchment paper on top and start rolling with gentle pressure. Roll it to 3/8” thick.
7. For the button cookies, I used a small 1inch diameter cookie cutter and then pokes the holes in the center using a plain round small piping tip.
8. For the star cookies, I used a small star cookie cutter.
9. For the leaf, I used these cutouts I got from Amazon (…)
10. Once the cutouts are ready, place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper on, and leave it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. (You might have to do it in batches)
11. Preheat the oven to 375 F and bake the cookie in middle rack for 8 minutes. Once done, take the cookie sheet out of the oven and leave the cookies on the sheet for 2 minutes. Finally remove the baked cookies on a wire rack and let it cool completely.
12. For frosting, I used store bought frosting for the button and star. As for the leaf cookies, I loosen the texture of the store bought white icing by adding little milk and then mixed orange food color to it.
13. Let the icing set completely before you store the cookies in air tight jar.