Sugar and Spice Cookies

These are my favorite cut-out cookies. Sweet and spicy, they’re a wonderful Christmas treat. I’ve been making them every Christmas for almost 15 years now. You can make the dough up to 3 days ahead of time.

Original recipe makes 50 2-inch cookies

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves
1/2 cup softened butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREP

20 mins
COOK

10 mins
READY IN

2 hrs

Directions

Mix the flour, the baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves together in a bowl.
Cream the butter and brown sugar together with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth; beat the egg and vanilla extract into the butter mixture. Add the flour mixture in small amount to the butter mixture, beating each addition until blended. Form the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets.
Roll the dough out on a floured work surface with a rolling pin to about 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with 2-inch cookie cutters. Arrange the cut cookies onto the prepared baking sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven until the edges begin to brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.