Best Easter Sugar Cookies Recipes

EASTER SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar. Beat in egg yolk and extracts. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours or until easy to handle., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 2-1/2-in. cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges begin to brown, 8-10 minutes. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Decorate as desired.

MARTHA'S EASTER SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Cookies: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, granulated sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and cognac until well combined. Add flour mixture; beat on low until just combined. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough evenly and shape into 2 disks; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 5 days.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate until very firm, about 30 minutes, or freeze 10 minutes. Stamp out shapes. Transfer cutouts to prepared sheets, about 1 inch apart. Reroll scraps; stamp out more shapes and transfer to sheets. Refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes, or freeze 10 minutes. Bake until set and golden around edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire racks; let cool completely.
• Royal Icing: In a bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, egg whites, and 2 teaspoons lemon juice until smooth. If necessary, add more lemon juice or confectioners' sugar to reach desired consistency. Divide and tint with gel-paste colors as desired. Pour some into squeeze bottles for detailing.

EASTER EGG SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in extracts. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour or until easy to handle., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. egg-shaped cookie cutter. Place 1 in. apart on lightly greased baking sheets. Make a hole for a ribbon by pressing a plastic straw 1/2-in. from the top of each cookie if desired. , Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool., For icing, sift confectioners' sugar and meringue powder into a large bowl. Add water and extract; beat on low speed until blended. Beat on high 5 minutes. , Fill a pastry or plastic bag with 1 cup of icing; cut a small hole in the corner of the bag. Outline each cookie with icing. Tint remaining icing with food coloring if desired. Add water, a few drops at a time, until mixture is thin enough to flow smoothly. Fill in the center space of each cookie, allowing the icing to spread to the outline. Let dry overnight., Decorate with remaining icing. Store in airtight containers. Thread ribbon through holes, tie ends in a bow and hang on an Easter tree if desired.

EASTER EGG SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• For the sugar dough: Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat together the vanilla and egg in a small bowl.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Once incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat until slightly creamy, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula as needed.
• Reduce the speed to low again, slowly pour in the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating until combined after each and increasing the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters as needed. Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide into 2 even pieces. Shape each piece into a flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.
• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust another sheet of parchment with flour and put 1 dough piece on top. Dust with more flour and top with another sheet of parchment. Roll the dough out between the parchment sheets into a square about 1/4 inch thick (and about 11 by 9 inches) and place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.
• Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, cut out cookies with a 2 1/2- by 2 2/4-inch Easter egg cookie cutter and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate while you cut the remaining cookies. Reroll any scraps of dough and repeat the freezing, cutting and refrigerating process until all the dough is used. Repeat with the remaining dough sheet.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets front to back and bottom to top about halfway through, until cookies are golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheets set on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.
• For the icing: Meanwhile, sift the confectioners' sugar into a large bowl. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until the icing is thick enough to show the line of the whisk that disappears within about 8 seconds.
• Place 3 tablespoons white icing in each of 3 separate bowls. Tint each a different color and cover with plastic wrap (see Cook's Note). Place 1/4 cup white icing in another bowl, covering the remaining white icing with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Drizzle one of the colored icings (about 1 tablespoon) onto the 1/4 cup white icing and swirl with a toothpick.
• Next, dip the surface of a cookie in the swirled icing and remove slowly, allowing any excess to drip off. Shake the cookie over the bowl of icing to remove any excess. Gently smooth the icing with a toothpick to fill in any gaps, if necessary. Place the finished cookies on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Use the tip of the toothpick to pop any bubbles that appear. Drizzle more colored icing as needed. Repeat this process with the next 2 colors and the remaining white icing until all the cookies are decorated. Let set for 30 minutes. Store single layers of cookies, with parchment in between, in a tightly sealed container for up to 1 week.

DECORATED EASTER EGG SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, melted butter and egg until soft dough forms.
• On floured surface, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut with 3- to 3 1/4-inch egg-shaped cookie cutter; place cutouts 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
• In 3 separate small bowls, divide frosting and tint two of them separately with pink and yellow food colors, leaving the third bowl white. With small icing knife or offset metal spatula, spread 1 tablespoon of frosting on top of cookie.
• Using photo as a guide, decorate frosted cookie with cookie icing, sprinkles and sugars. Repeat for frosting and decorating remaining cookies. Let stand about 1 hour or until icing is set. Store covered in airtight container at room temperature with waxed paper between layers.

EASTER SUGAR COOKIES W/ICING THAT HARDENS

Steps:

• 1. Cookies: In a large bowl combine butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla and almond extract. Beat using an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. In another bowl, combine the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
• 2. Set oven to 400 degrees. line cookie sheets with parchment paper (do not grease cookie sheets, use parchment paper only). On a very lightly floured surface roll out the dough into about 1/4-inch thickness Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. (roll dough on the parchment paper and remove excess if cookies are delicate) Place cookies 2-inches apart (I did 1-inch) on cookie sheet. Bake for 4-6 minutes. (I did 6 minutes) Remove cookies to wire racks to cool completely before icing.
• 3. ICING: In a small bowl mix the powdered sugar with milk (start with 1 or 2 tablespoons, you will likely need more milk for the perfect spreading consistency). Beat in corn syrup and a little vanilla until the icing is smooth and glossy (if the icing is too thick add in a small amount of more corn syrup). Divide into as many separate bowls as you wish to different colors. Add in food coloring until desired intensity is achieved. Pain the icing over the cookies using a brush,or dip edges of cookies into icing. Wash brush before changing colors. Allow to set on waxed paper. Decorate as you want. I needed two batches of frosting for these cookies. The second batch of frosting, I did not sift the powdered sugar and made a little stiffer frosting to use as decorating the cookies..

MARTHA'S BROWN-SUGAR EASTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter with sugars on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in flour mixture. Divide dough in half; flatten into disks. Wrap each in plastic and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour or overnight.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Let dough stand at room temperature until pliable. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to just under 1/4 inch thick, dusting with flour as needed. Cut out shapes with cutters; transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets. Reroll scraps and repeat. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Bake until golden, rotating sheets once, about 18 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
• For cookies with white and colored dots: Use a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip (such as #3) to make icing dots (about half as many dots as you want on finished cookies). Sprinkle with sanding sugar and let set, then shake off excess sugar. Pipe additional dots on cookies; let dry.
• To coat cookie surface with icing: Place icing in a shallow dish and carefully dip cookie into icing, leaving a thin border. Transfer to a wire rack and sprinkle with sanding sugar, if desired. Let set and shake off excess sugar. If desired, pipe additional dots on cookies (or pipe a dot for a rabbit's eye). Let dry overnight. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment up to 1 week.

EASTER SUGAR SANDWICH COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and extract. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle., Divide dough in half. On a lightly floured surface, roll out one portion to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. round cookie cutter. Repeat with remaining dough. Using a small floured bunny- or chick-shaped cookie cutter, cut out the center of half of the cookies. , Place cookies and cutouts 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool., Spread bottoms of the solid cookies with filling; place cookies with cutout centers over filling. Serve with cutouts.

BROWN SUGAR EASTER COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat 10 tbs of butter over medium high heat until melted. Continue to cook, swirling until butter has an amber colour and nutty smell (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat, pour into heat safe bowl, and add remaining 4 tbs butter, stirring till melted. Leave to cool for 15 minutes.
• Use the time to preheat oven to 175C (350F) and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Prepare shallow dish with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. Use fingers to mix together.
• In a medium bowl whisk together dry ingredients (minus salt and remaining brown sugar).
• Add the remaining brown sugar and salt to butter bowl. Once combined add egg and egg yolk. Finally stir in dry ingredients until just combined.
• Roll dough into 24 balls, coat in sugar mixture and place on baking tray
• Bake for 12-14 minutes. Do not over bake. Cookies will appear underdone. Cool for 5 minutes on baking tray. Press one egg into the center of each cookie. Transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.