Have you ever tried to do cut out cookies with a young toddler? It’s an exercise in patience, let me tell you! I decided to give it a go last week with E. He enjoyed watching my big mixer and rolling out some of the dough. He cut two shapes and then daddy whisked him away because we started to have fingerprints in the dough and I didn’t want to be up all night cutting cookies. When he’s a little older I’m sure he’ll be a great help, but considering he’s not quite 2 I think he did pretty good!

We decorated the cookies the next day when Nana and Papa were visiting. Decorating is more fun than making cookies for a toddler! I made basic icing (icing sugar, water, vanilla, food colouring) that was a little runny so he could paint the cookies. We bought sprinkles too and it was a miracle we didn’t have sprinkles all over the house. Of course the best part is eating them!

It was a good thing we had Nana and Papa, as C decided to make gnocchi. Making gnocchi actually isn’t that hard but it’s messy. We also decided to do a double batch which meant we had more gnocchi than we knew what to do with. I think we ended up with 4 1/2 baking sheets worth. And then we had to scrape potatoes off everything! Like literal scraping off the counters. It was totally worth it though and I’m glad we had extra hands to keep E busy so we could get supper done.

Anyways, back to the cookies. This recipe is easy, doesn’t require chilling and the cookies come out soft and yummy! If you want to check out the recipe I based it on, head over to In Katrina’s Kitchen. I actually cut back on the sugar, crazy I know, but when you are decorating them with sugar it’s an overload! Plus with all the other Christmas goodies, it’s not good for the waistline.

So if you’re looking for an easy recipe for some delicious sugar cookies, this should be your go to! Enjoy!

Easy Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup butter (room temperature)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3 cup all purpose flour

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In the bowl of your mixer cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in extract and egg.
4. In separate bowl combine dry ingredients and slowly (a little bit at a time) add to wet ingredients.
5. Dough should come together and pull away from the sides.
6. Remove from bowl and divide into 2 or 3 workable sections. Roll each section onto floured surface, about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out as desired.
7. Place on baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on tray until firm enough to move.
8. Decorate & enjoy!