Super Soft Sugar Cookies

I LOVE these sugar cookies, they're so soft and not super sweet so you can top them with whatever sugary goodness you'd like. Pairing it with my Cream Cheese Frosting makes them perfect... in my opinion at least. I ate three for breakfast and had to stop myself from eating them all. I can't keep myself from sweets.

Ingredients:
3 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
3 tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Shortening
3/4 Cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Egg

Combine dry ingredients and then cut in shortening like a pie crust. Whisk egg into vanilla and milk. Stir into dry ingredients until combined. The dough will be sticky and very soft so use a little dough at a time and plenty of flour on your surface, hands and rolling pin.

*Tip* I like to split my dough in half, wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for a little while, or even a few days or a week or two if I don't want to use all the dough at once or just to have on hand. If you do freeze it pull it out when you're ready to use it and let it sit for just a couple minutes. It won't freeze solid but it helps with the stickiness a little.*

Roll out your dough a little at a time, use whatever cookie cutter shape you like. I line my baking sheets with parchment paper so I don't have to worry about them sticking to the pan. Make sure you don't put the cookies too close together because they will rise and expand some.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-12 minutes depending on the size you make them or until they are just barely golden on the edges. Let them set on the pan for a few minutes otherwise they could fall apart when you move them to a cooling rack. Like I said, they're very soft cookies. Allow them to cool completely on the cooling rack and then ice them cute or just plain white with sprinkles or no sprinkles..

Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/4 Cup Butter, room temperature
3 Cups Powdered Sugar
1-2 tsp Vanilla
1 T Milk

Combine until smooth. Keep refrigerated.  You can add color if you'd like.

The heart on top was made with melting chocolates. I just melted the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute, then put it inside a condiment bottle and drew little heart designs on parchment paper. Let them set and when they were ready just put them on the cookie wherever they looked cute. It's nice that they don't really harden, it's a soft chocolate so it's nothing like the crunch you get with a sprinkle... so much better. But the kids love the sprinkles so we had to have some of those too..