In my opinion, no holiday tin is complete without a few decorated sugar cookies. I know that I just posted another sugar cookie recipe very recently, but I had to share these because they are my absolute favorite sugar cookies ever! The situation with these is similar to with the fudge I posted below. They are one of the many goodies given to our family during the holidays, and I was just blown away by how good they were. I made sure to find out who had given us the cookies and then tracked down the recipe. I have been making these for probably five or six years now and I just love them. They always turn out wonderfully and they keep very well. I typically decorate with store-bought frosting just because the process of making the dough, rolling it out, cutting out shapes and baking the cookies leaves me less than enthusiastic by the time I get to decorating. Even so, they turned out pretty cute 
Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour
Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yields ~40 cookies.
Source: passed on to me by family friend Donna
Those are so cute! I’m saving this recipe.
Those are beautiful!
those are so beautifully decorated! it’s so hard, because there are so many ‘best ever’ sugar cookie recipes out there that i want to try. i recently made some using peabody’s recipe - i may need to try your recipe next
Well guess what I’m taking to my work holiday party!
These are just too cute! I’ve been having a hard time finding a good rolled-out sugar cookie recipe so this will be a keeper!
seriously, they may be “plain” to you, but NOTHING says the holidays more to me than a beatifully frosted sugar cookie. Sometimes it’s the simple things that are the best.
these are so cute! i have to try this recipe.
Do you sift the flour before or after you measure? These look like THE recipe I have been dying to find!
Thanks go to Donna for this incredible recipe. I love your decorating, they would look so special on a holiday treat tray!
Your cookies are sooo cute!! Absolutely adorable.