Almost Sweetopia Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Total Time: 3 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 2 hrs 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup butter flavor shortening
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 6 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 6 cups flour

Recipe

• 1 by hand, cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl.
• 2 add the first egg and mix well.
• 3 add the second egg with the vanilla and almond extracts and mix.
• 4 sift the flour into the bowl and mix until smooth--do not overmix.
• 5 split the dough into four pieces (two if making a half batch) and pat each section into a disk about 1 1/2 cm thick.
• 6 wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• 7 between the plastic wrap and some parchment paper, roll out the dough to 1 cm and cut out cookie shapes. then mush together and re-roll scraps.
• 8 place cutouts on parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to chill again. (they will then hold their shape better when baked after chilling. i sometimes chill overnight and bake the next day.).
• 9 preheat your oven to 350°f or 176°c.
• 10 bake cookies for 8-15 minutes or until the edges are golden. (the baking time will depend on the size of your cookie. in my oven, 4 inch cookies take 15 minutes).
• 11 let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!