Monday Sweets: Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies

You know those super-soft sugar cookies with gobs of icing from the grocery store that everyone loves? Yeah, they are one grocery store cookie I can get seriously addicted to. After racking my brain for a new festive Fourth of July after-lunch dessert idea, I thought of them, or a homemade version of them, and Google found me a recipe that looked delectable.

The cookies puffed up while they baked to a nice cake-like consistency. They're just barely sweet, which provides excuse to load them up with icing and sprinkles.

Warning: These are way more work than your standard drop cookies. The dough has to sit overnight. And then you have to roll them out and cut them into shape, and after baking, there's icing and decorating. But they are worth it for taste and presentation if you have the time.

Also, the four dozen or so it yielded was enough for a huge crowd, and at the end of a late-night baking session, I only had the energy to ice half of them with my buttercream frosting (a.k.a. best icing ever). I suggest halving the recipe.

I like to use a jar as a cookie cutter because it has a built-in handle. I didn't have a star-shaped cutter (only the whole alphabet and any Christmas shape imaginable), which would have stepped up the festive element.

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies

mangiodasola.com, adapted from Recipezaar

For 4-inch cookies, you will end up with two dozen cookies. So, if you make 2 1/2 - 3-inch cookies, you should end up with about 3-4 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 cups sour cream

6 cups all purpose flour

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate overnight (or 6-8 hours).

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour (not joking on the generous part; I used too little at first and everything the dough was a sticky mess). Cut out shapes, and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes.

Cool on wire rack. Frost with buttercream frosting or your favorite icing and decorate as desired.