Possibly the most classic Christmas cookie recipe out there: Sugar Cookies with Easy Royal Icing! These sugar cookies are tender and chewy, but still hold their shape perfectly, and the easy royal icing comes together in only 10 minutes.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies, but of course, that will all depend on the size of the cookie cutters you are using.

Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing

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Equipment List
Making The Sugar Cookies
Cutting The Cookies
Making The Easy Royal Icing
More Christmas Cookie Recipes
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Are you looking for more amazing Christmas cookie recipes? You have to try these super buttery and delicious chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, as well as these super unique bear claw cookies!

Equipment List

Below is a list of things that you will need to make this recipe.

Stand Mixer: You might be noticing a trend with me recommending this stand mixer. I use it A LOT, and it works in double time over the holidays!
Cookie Cutters: Any cookie cutters will work, you can even just cut the dough into squares with a knife if you want, but for the Christmas season I love to have some cute festive cookie cutters on hand!
Meringue Powder: This is the most important part of the easy royal icing. It cannot be subbed out for anything else, you must use meringue powder in this recipe.
Wilton Gel Colors: These are my favourite gel colours on the market! They last forever and come in a bunch of different colours. But the most important part of using gel colouring is it will not dilute the mixture that you add it to, which is super important. Traditional water based food colouring adds additional water to the mixture and can alter the final results.

Making The Sugar Cookies

The sugar cookie dough comes together like any traditional cookie dough and is easy peasy to make.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar. Mix on medium speed until the butter and sugar are creamed together, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the egg, egg yolks, baking powder, almond extract, and salt. Mix on medium speed until combined.

Now, gradually add in the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

This is the most important part of making the sugar cookie dough. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. This will ensure that your cookie dough is dense enough to hold its shape during baking.

sugar cookie dough in the mixing bowl, ready to be chilled

Gather the cookies dough into a large ball, cover with wrap or transfer to an airtight container and let chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

sugar cookie dough wrapped to be chilled in the fridge

Cutting The Cookies

Generously dust a large surface with flour and roll out the cookie dough to ½" - ¼" thickness.

Using cookie cutters of choice, cut out the cookies. When you have cut all of the cookies, gather the remnants of dough, knead it together, and re roll it. Keep repeating this process until all of the dough is used.

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Place the cookies on baking sheets, keeping at least 1" spacing between the cookies. Bake for 12-13 minutes until the edges just start to turn a light golden brown. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely before icing.

Undecorated stacks of sugar cookies, ready to be decorated with royal icing

Making The Easy Royal Icing

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the icing sugar, meringue powder, ½ cup of water, and vanilla. Whisk on high speed for 6 minutes. The mixture will turn thick and almost double in size.

Pull up the whisk, the icing should drizzle down and flatten out almost immediately. If it doesn't flatten, you will need to add more water. Add the additional water 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the correct consistency.

If you want your icing all one colour, add a little bit of gel food colouring directly to the mixing bowl and whisk until the colour is fully combined, about 1 minute.

To make various colours, transfer the plain icing into smaller bowls and using a small hand whisk or a fork, add the gel colouring and whisk by hand until fully combined.

Transfer the royal icing to icing bags and snip off a tiny part of the end. Remember, you can always cut a bigger hole, but you can't close up a hole that is too big!

Now you are ready to decorate away! Some other things that can be added to the cookies as decorations too are sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, or mini marshmallows!

How To Make Stark White Royal Icing

All you have to do is make sure you use clear vanilla, otherwise, your royal icing will turn a tint of brown. Using clear vanilla extract will ensure your icing stays stark white, without any additional additives! If you can't find clear vanilla extract, substitute it for clear almond extract, which will be a lot easier to find at any major grocery store.

These sugar cookies will last for one week sealed in an airtight container, or you can freeze them for up to 3 months.

These classic cookies are so much fun to make with kids, you could even host a cookie decorating party! Just make sure to tape down parchment paper over the table so clean up will be a breeze!

They also make the perfect addition to a Christmas baking tray or cookie exchange.

These cookies are a part of our 12 Days of Christmas Series - Season 1. Check out Day 8: Candy Cane Bark! 🎄