Sourdough Sugar Cookies

To the bowl of a stand mixer mix the butter until light and fluffy. Add the granulated sugar and whip together. Add the sourdough discard, egg, 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 and you have one cohesive chunk of dough that sticks together. If you pick up a piece of dough, it should roll into a ball in your fingers with little to no residue left behind. If it's too sticky, add a little more flour. At this point the dough can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stuck in the refrigerator to long-ferment if desired.

Preheat the oven to 350°F regular bake or 325°F convection. Prepare one or two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Lightly flour a countertop or pastry mat Add a little flour to the top of the dough or flour a rolling pin. Turn the dough out onto the counter and 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 parchment-lined cookie sheet with a little space in between each cookie.

Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes (or 325°F 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.

Add the unsalted butter to a medium-sized mixing bowl. Use a hand mixer and whip the butter until light in color. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, salt and most of the heavy cream.

Whip together until the buttercream is light and fluffy. Add in the rest of the heavy cream as needed until you get the consistency you like. Continue whipping the buttercream together until it is light and fluffy. The key to a good buttercream is in the mixing. Mix for 5-7 minutes until silky smooth.

Pipe buttercream on cooled cookies. This recipe yields enough to frost these cookies. If you like a lot of frosting, you may want to make 1.5 or two times the buttercream recipe.