The Best Cookies- White Velvet Cutouts

White Velvet Cutouts. The Champagne of sugar cookies.

I can't even tell you how many batches of these cookies I have made.  I got the recipe from a Seventeen magazine when I was probably 13 years old.  I have been making them ever since.  They are great for so many reasons: they hold their shape when you bake them; they're a bit tart, thanks to the cream cheese; they're soft, but not too soft; the tangy glaze is a perfect counterpart to sweetness of the cookies.

I have been sort of off baked goods for a while now, but I am practically salivating on my keyboard just thinking about how delicious these cookies are. I have made them in dozens of shapes, for various functions- these champagne flutes were for our Christmas party last year.  

White Velvet Cutouts

1 cup butter, soft enough to mix, but not room temperature

3 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Cream the butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer if you have one, or just go at it with a wooden spoon, like I did as a kid.  Add the sugar, and mix until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolk and vanilla, and mix well.  Stir in the flour.  

Separate the dough into 2 pieces, and flatten into discs, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, or at least for 3 hours.  You want the dough to be really, really firm before you roll it out.  That's how you get well-defined shapes.

When ready to proceed, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle plenty of flour on your rolling surface, and remove one disc from the fridge to roll out.  The original recipe said to roll to 3/16th of an inch, so shoot for that if you want a lot of cookies.  Mine are usually a bit thicker.

Cut out shapes.  I have made lips, houses, sharks, Christmas trees, stars, doves, Texas, candy canes... you get the idea.

Transfer cutouts to an ungreased cookie sheet.  I often stick the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few minutes, if the dough has warmed up too much during the rolling process.

Bake until the edges are just slightly golden. The whiter these cookies stay, the better they taste.  The recipe says 8-10 minutes, but hang around your oven and check them frequently, and you'll learn how long to bake them in your oven.

Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Run your cookie sheet under cold water and dry before using it again. If you stick unbaked dough on a hot cookie sheet, the shapes will start to melt before they cook, and that ain't pretty.

Glaze:

1 cup icing sugar (or powdered sugar, or confectioners sugar; whatever they call it where you live)

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

food colouring, if you like

Mix up glaze, and spread on cooled cookies.  You may need to tinker with quantities to get the thickness you want.  Thinner is better.  This glaze is delicious, but it takes absolutely FOREVER to harden, so you need to store your finished cookies in one layer, or they'll all stick together.  Worth it, though!