Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies. It's the most wonderful time of the year and the kitchens are filling with the aroma of baked goods. These snowflake sugar cookies are a great addition to your holiday baking, so deliciously buttery and spiced. Perfect as-is, iced, or with a simple dusting of icing sugar.
Song of the day: Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
Ingredients of these Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies
- Unsalted butter, at room temperature, so it's easy to beat with the sugar.
- Sugar. I used fine cane sugar, granulated works well.
- Salt. Just a pinch, it enhances the flavors.
- Egg white, at room temperature.
- Vanilla. I used vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract works just fine.
- Flour. All-purpose flour, or my favorite, 00 flour.
- Ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves, all-spice. These are the warm spices of holiday baking.
- Sanding sugar for sprinkling, optional, it gives a nice texture. Omit, and ice the cookies after baking, or simply dust with icing sugar.
Make the dough
Whenever I can, I like to make the dough in a stand mixer. It is faster and easier, especially when you have to cream the butter and sugar.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, beat the softened butter, sugar, and salt, on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Reduce the speed to low, add the egg white and the vanilla. Then, add the flour in 3-4 additions, beating and scraping down the sides after each addition. Continue until the flour is no longer visible and the dough is forming a ball.
- Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it to a thickness of ¼ inch. Slide the dough in between paper onto a baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour or refrigerate for 3 hours.
- When ready to cut into shapes, take the rolled dough out of the freezer, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Also, peel away the parchment paper on top of the dough.
Cut the shapes
- Using a snowflake cookie cutter, cut as many shapes as you can. I used three different sizes from smaller to bigger. Place them on the prepared baking sheet leaving some space in between the cookies. Re-roll the scraps of dough between parchment paper. TIP: This type of dough is easier to work when it is cold, so refrigerate the dough before cutting and baking.
- If using sanding sugar, sprinkle some on the surface of the snowflake cookies.
Bake the Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies
- Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at half the baking time. The cookies should feel firm to the touch, with a golden color on the edges. Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes before placing them onto a rack.
Decorating the top of the Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies
If you sprinkled the top of the Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies with sanding sugar like I did, they would be perfect just like that. The sanding sugar gives a lovely shimmer and a delightful crunch. I personally love cut out cookies, especially for the holidays, and these ones were the perfect addition to my ever growing collection.
As a matter of fact, I made the cookies specifically to add on top of a Christmas trifle and decided to add a little more flair to them. We made two different types of paper stencil, and also used paper doilies to place on top of the cookies before dusting them with icing/powdered sugar. In the following pictures you will see the cookies on the top of the trifle created an enchanting snowy landscape.
Hope you have fun baking these Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies. If you make them, we would love to see your creations and know how you made out. Leave us a review and also tag us and show us your pictures on our social medias.
Happy Holiday Baking!
PrintSugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies
Sugar and Spice Snowflake Cookies. It's the most wonderful time of the year and the kitchens are filling with the aroma of baked goods. These snowflake sugar cookies are a great addition to a cookie tray, so deliciously buttery and spiced. Perfect as is, iced, or with a simple dusting of icing sugar.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 19 minutes
- Total Time: 39 minutes
- Category: Dessert, cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: North American
Ingredients
- ½ pound (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cubed
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoon + 2 teaspoon (130 g) cane sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 large egg white, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 cups (272 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground all-spice (I didn't have, so I used Chinese 5 spice)
- sanding sugar for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a handheld mixer, beat the softened butter, sugar, and salt, on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
- Reduce the speed to low, add the egg white and the vanilla.
- Then, add the flour in 3-4 additions, beating and scraping down the sides after each addition. Continue until the flour is no longer visible and the dough is forming a ball.
- Place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll it to a thickness of ¼ inch. Slide the dough in between paper onto a baking sheet and freeze for 1 hour or refrigerate for 3 hours.
- When ready to cut into shapes, take the rolled dough out of the freezer, preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Also, peel away the parchment paper on top of the dough.
- Using a snowflake cookie cutter, cut as many shapes as you can. I used three different sizes from smaller to bigger. Place them on the prepared baking sheet leaving some space in between the cookies.
- Re-roll the scraps of dough between parchment paper. This type of dough is easier to work when it is cold, so refrigerate the dough before cutting and baking.
- If using sanding sugar, sprinkle some on the surface of the snowflake cookies.
- Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, rotating the baking sheet at half the baking time. The cookies should feel firm to the touch, with a golden color on the edges.
- Let the cookies rest for 5 minutes before placing onto a rack.
Notes
The total time does not include the time the dough is in the freezer or refrigerator.
You could ice the top of the cookies or dust with icing sugar after baking.
I love baking and kneading dough because it takes me to a happy place in my soul.
Gloria says
The foods of the holidays are the best. These cookies are super cute and will be a nice addition to the treat tray. I think I will make a double batch and hand some out as food gifts too.
They are:) . And theese cookies present beautifully as a gift.
Marta says
We love baking Christmas cookies during the holidays, so we were excited to find your recipe for sugar cookies last week. They came out buttery and held their shape beautifully. Thank you!
Thank you! Yes, they are buttery and crispy. Glad you loved them!
Bernice says
Thank you for the Christmas baking inspiration! I've been procrastinating but now I'm ready to get baking...starting with these perfect snowflakes!
You can bake a batch before Christmas or make them for New Year's. 😉
Yu says
Always love snowflake cookies. They are so good! I am also getting ready to make a few batches for the upcoming Christmas family gathering. Thank you for this delicious recipe!
You're welcome! Hope everyone loves them as much as we do!
Elaine says
This past weekend I had my great nephew over and we made these cookies. They were fun to make and delicious. We both had a ball making them together.
Those are the happiest memories. Thank you!
Leslie says
This is the perfect Christmas cookie! Simple, but not boring and the flavors are festive and delicious!
Thank you! Yes, they are simple to make and taste great.
Lauren Michael Harris says
The snowflake cookies were easy to make and look so pretty on our Christmas cookie trays we are gifting this year. A perfect addition ot our yearly holiday baking!
Happy to hear that! Thank you for making them!
Jacqueline Debono says
I'm in love with these snowflake cookies. I have already made one batch and am now planning a second as the first lot have already disappeared and it's not even Christmas yet!
Thank you very much! Happy they were loved.
Kathryn says
I love that you added these on a dessert! So festive and great idea. Can't wait to make these!
Thank you! Yes! They made the trifle extra special.
sean says
These were the perfect cookies to make with my little cousins and they loved decorating the snowflakes.
Awesome! Kids love making these cookies 😉 .