Almond Cut Out Cookies

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5 from 1 vote

An easy recipe for almond flavored cut out cookies - perfect for the holidays!

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Chill Time30

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cookies

Calories: 211kcal

Author: Taylor Ellingson

Ingredients

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened (3 sticks)
¾ cups sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 large egg
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoon milk
½ teaspoon almond extract
⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions

In a large bowl with an electric mixer or bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes.
Add the egg and almond extract until well combined, scraping down the edges of the bowl as needed.
Scrape the dough from the bowl and form into two balls. Wrap them in plastic wrap or put them in ziploc bags and refrigerate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Once they're chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin so the dough is approximately ¼" thick, and cut them into shapes with cookie cutters. I kept thinks simple this time with a circle cookie cutter.
Place the cookies onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 9-10 minutes. The edges should be slightly golden. They will set up more as they cool.
Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
In a small or medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, two tablespoons milk, ½ teaspoon almond extract, and salt. If you'd like, add some food color to make the icing a fun color.
Use a spoon or a knife to spread the icing onto each almond cut out cookie and then decorate as desired!

Notes

Use room temperature butter. I like to set mine out for 30-60 minutes ahead of time or microwave in increments of 5 seconds, rotating the sticks after each increment, until it's softened.

Chill the dough. Believe me, I really dislike having to chill dough, too, but I'm only asking for 30 minutes! I find if I chill my dough for an hour or two it gets too difficult to roll out. 30 minutes is all it takes for the dough to be easier to work with!

Decorate how you'd like. You can use lots of decorations or none for these almond cut out cookies! Sprinkles or edible glitter are super fun when you just use circle cut outs, or you can use holiday shaped cut-outs and decorate as you'd like.

Make ahead. You can definitely make these almond cut out cookies ahead of time. I like to make a batch of the cookies and store them in the freezer until there's a good time to decorate them with the kids. Or you can decorate them and freeze them, as well.

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