Best Easy Sugar Cookies are so easy, kid friendly, and will impress even the fanciest cookie connoisseur. Fluffy, soft, and super flavorful, bake up a batch this weekend, and let your kids help — this is a cookie for the whole family!
Mix in salt, vanilla (and/or almond extract) and egg yolks until blended.
Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing after each, until just combined.
Divide dough in half and shape each half into a ball.
Place on top of a sheet of parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness (slightly thinner for more cookies, slightly thicker for bakery-style cookies though this will yield fewer cookies).
Chill rolled dough for 15 minutes.
Cut into shapes with cookie cutters and place at least 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes (for 1/4 inch thick cookies. for thicker cookies they'll need an extra minute or so, for thinner cookies take them out by 8 minutes.) and allow to cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
prepare the frosting/icing
While the cookies are cooling, prepare the icing. In a large bowl cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
Add extract and salt and mix til smooth.
Add 1 cup powdered sugar, followed by 1 tablespoon milk, mix until incorporated, and repeat (1 cup powdered sugar + 1 tablespoon milk) until all of the powdered sugar is incorporated. Mix on high speed until light and fluffy, add additional milk 1 tablespoon at a time as needed to get a light and airy frosting. Add a couple drops of food coloring if desired.
Spread on cooled cookies and add sprinkles if desired. Store at room temperature or chilled in airtight container up to 1 week.
Notes
Makes roughly 22-32 cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutters. For thicker bakery-style sugar cookies simply roll the dough to about 1/3 of inch thick before cutting and then bake for an additional 1-2 minutes. This recipe can easily be doubled, you just need a really big bowl for the dough and should divide the dough into 4 parts rather than 2 before rolling out and cutting.