Vanilla bean paste provides a delicious flavor for these roll-out Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies. Only 6 ingredients! Perfect for making cut-out sugar cookies year-round.
I can’t seem to bake cookies fast enough around here. Turns out I’ve got a couple of little cookies monsters living here. My two oldest boys have a new system of helping each other climb onto the kitchen counters to sneak cookies.
One night, I stayed up after getting all three kids to bed and whipped up a batch of these Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies. My plan was to decorate them the next day with the kids. That morning, my two-year-old was up at 5 AM, playing quietly in the living room – turns out he was so quiet because he had gotten a hold of every sugar cookie he could reach! Broken pieces and crumbs trailed from the kitchen to the dining area and the living room. Our old hound dog looked happy but guilty, so I’m sure he had a few too!
Vanilla Bean Paste
These cookies call for one special ingredient - Vanilla Bean Paste. My local grocery store didn’t carry it so I used Heilala Vanilla Paste from Amazon Prime.
To substitute the vanilla bean paste in this recipe:
- Use 1 Vanilla Bean, cut in half length-wise, scraped + ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.
- Mix vanilla bean in with the butter and add vanilla extract after the egg.
I really love using the Vanilla Bean Paste and have been using it in cakes (like this Vanilla Cake from Modern Honey) and cookies. It gives the cookies visible flecks of vanilla bean, like in Blue Bell Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, which just feels a little bit fancy to me.
Cutting Out and Decorating
Roll out dough to ¼" on a floured surface. Cut with desired cookie cutters. Standard 3" cookies will take around 8-10 minutes to bake. Add additional time for larger cookies, 10-12 minutes is a good point to check.
We loved this little vintage truck with the Christmas tree cookie cutter!
To decorate, I used the recipe for Simple Cookie Glaze from King Arthur Flour to quickly and minimally decorate my cookies this year.
I used Chefmaster Natural Food Coloring to color my glaze and got the perfect shade of winter blue!
Recipe
📖 Recipe
Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Butter softened
- ¾ cup Sugar
- 1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Bean Paste
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 2 ¼ cup All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
Instructions
- Beat butter in stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla bean paste, beating until mixture is light and fluffy. Add egg, mixing well.
- Combine flour and salt in medium bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture. Beat until a smooth dough is formed.
- Shape dough into 3 discs. Wrap individually in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.
- After chilling, roll each disc to ¼” thickness on a floured surface. Cut into desired shapes.
- Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. Larger cookies may take longer, recommend baking cookies over 4” for 10-12 minutes.
- Cool for one minute of baking sheet and then remove to wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Christmas Southern Living 2000.
This is a good sugar cookie recipe to use for your roll-out cookies year-round!
Merry Christmas y’all!
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