These rolled sugar cookies have a perfectly light & airy texture with a delicate buttery taste. They're the best cookie cutter sugar cookies for decorating!
Using a stand mixer (or hand mixer + large bowl), cream together butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth, about 5-7 minutes.
1 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar
Drop mixer speed to low and add egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.
1 large egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Keeping speed on low, quickly add dry ingredients to mixer, scooping in about 1/3 to 1/2 cup at a time. Stop mixing once dough looks smooth and uniform. Be careful not to overmix.
Remove dough from bowl and divide in half. Place each half of dough on separate pieces of plastic wrap. Firmly wrap dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
To cut cookies, prepare your work surface by dusting it with flour. Also coat your hands, cookie cutters, and rolling pin with flour, and set a bowl of flour nearby in case the dough begins to stick. When ready to work dough, remove plastic wrap and place dough on your prepared work surface. Use the rolling pin to roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness, then cut the dough with your floured cookie cutters. Arranged cut cookies on prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches apart. When you have cut all the cookies you can from a roll of dough, collect the scraps, flour your surface and tools, and roll dough out again. If dough ever becomes too soft, wrap the remaining dough in plastic wrap and chill for another 20 minutes. Repeat this step until all the dough is used or cookie sheets are full.
Bake cookies for 13-15 minutes or until bottoms of cookies begin to turn a light golden color. If baking two cookie sheets at once, rotate baking sheets halfway through cooking time.
Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Once cooled, decorate cookies as desired.
Serve immediately.
Notes
* If you don't have any cake flour on hand, you can make your own:. Using a 1 cup measuring cup, add 2 tablespoon cornstarch. Fill the rest of the measuring cup with all-purpose flour. Use this ratio to create as much cake flour as you need. Sift the ingredients together and use as directed in the recipe.* If you don't have any cornstarch to make your own cake flour, you can completely substitute the cake flour for 2 1/4 all-purpose flour.