Recipe: Basic Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe

Yields about 24 cookies

Ingredients
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup butter or margarine
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter until soft, then add brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in vanilla and eggs.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Add flour to the butter/egg mixture and stir until dough is well combined and stiff. Divide the dough into four equal parts. On a floured surface, roll out each portion of the dough to about ¼ inch thickness. Get your kids to cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Arrange the different shapes on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool slightly, before transferring them onto a cooling rack.

Once the cookies are cool, the cookies can be decorated.