Best Ever Sugar Cookies

To the bowl of stand mixer, mix the butter until light and fluffy. Add the granulated sugar and cream together. Add the eggs one egg at a time and mix. Continue mixing until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and almond extract. Mix for a few minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed until fluffy, light in color and smooth.

To a medium-sized bowl, add the dry ingredients: all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar. Fluff together with a fork.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined. Don't be too zealous with the mixing, but make sure you have a cohesive mass of dough.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees regular bake or 325 degrees convection. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (my favorite cookie sheet here, affiliate link)

Lightly flour a countertop or pastry mat. Turn the dough out onto the counter and split into a few pieces. Working with a piece at a time, roll the dough to about 1/4 of an inch thick, flouring a little as needed, though be careful to not over-flour the dough. If you want a crispier cookie, roll the dough a little thinner to 1/8 of an inch.

Using a cookie cutter (affiliate link), cut shapes out of the dough. Try to place your shapes as close together as possible to use up as much dough without needing to re-roll. Place cut cookie dough on a cookie sheet with a little space in between each cookie.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes (or 325 convection for 8-9 minutes). For a crispier cookie, bake an extra minute or two. Let cookies cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan to cool. Continue this process, re-rolling scraps together once or twice until all your cookie dough is used up. Let cookies cool completely before frosting or freezing.

To Freeze: Stack cooled cookies. Place cookies in an airtight container and freeze. Pull out when ready to frost, and frost from frozen.

To the bowl of a stand mixer, or to a bowl with a handheld mixer, add the room temperature butter. Whip together with the whisk attachment or beaters. Whip for a few minutes until the butter is light and airy looking.

Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract if desired. Whip together.

Add heavy cream as you are whipping the frosting, beginning with 2 Tablespoons and increasing up to 4 Tablespoons depending on how you prefer the consistency of the frosting. Add food coloring if desired.

Continue whipping until light, creamy and whiter in color (the buttercream loses its yellow, buttery color and turns more white the longer you whip it for).

Frost cooled cookies or frozen cookies with buttercream. Pipe around edges if desired. Enjoy!