This post may contain affiliate links, please see our privacy policy for details.
Kicking off the holiday baking season with my Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies. Made with brown sugar, real vanilla, and my secret ingredients, a little bit of hazelnut liquor and almond extract to bring out the vanilla flavor. These cookies are soft, buttery, and perfectly sweet with the best vanilla flavor and notes of brown sugar. They’re generously frosted with a thick and creamy whipped caramel buttercream frosting. Then decorated with festive holiday sprinkles. The combination of real vanilla, brown sugar, and almond extract, keeps these cookies incredibly flavorful. Plus, they’ve got some really GOOD frosting. These cookies make for a great homemade gift, and a festive addition to your holiday cookie box!
Half Baked Harvest At Home
20+ new recipes for wholesome comfort food made with everyday ingredients. Pre-order today! HBH At Home will be released on Tuesday, February 23rd!
Just like last holiday season, I’m focusing on ALL of the Christmas cookies. I have so many ideas and not enough days to share – like so many ideas. I’m in Christmas mode, and picking the best cookies to share has been hard!
These cookies were an easy choice. I think my mother picked them from my list 5 times over, so I had to start here. And I’m happy I did. I LOVE these cookies. They might be one of my easiest, but cutest.
I know it looks like making these cute could take time, but I have a secret little shortcut you’ll love.
My hang-up with basic sugar cookies is that they’re often flavorless. And even worse, the frosting just tastes like sugar, and I’m definitely not into that.
With these cookies, I wanted to add flavor with brown sugar and real vanilla bean. But most importantly, I wanted to use a buttercream frosting instead of the classic sugar icing.
A soft brown sugar vanilla cookie with real whipped caramel frosting = VERY GOOD sugar cookies!
The details
Beat the butter with the brown sugar and vanilla bean powder. You’ll want to beat for at least a minute to really infuse the butter with the vanilla flavor. Next, add eggs, hazelnut liquor, and almond extract, then all the dry ingredients.
From here, shape the dough into two logs, wrap them up in paper, and chill until firm enough to slice n’ bake.
If you have an almost empty roll of wrapping paper around, cut the roll and fit it around each log. This will prevent the dough from forming a straight edge in the fridge!
And when ready to bake, simply slice-n-bake!
The frosting
I went with a vanilla buttercream, but there’s a little secret ingredient involved – salted caramel. Or you can use thick maple syrup. It’s only a fourth of a cup, but it just makes the frosting melt in your mouth.
Use homemade caramel sauce or store-bought, though I prefer homemade sauce if you have the time.
It’s honestly, so good and makes for one of the best buttercream frostings.
Decorating is easy and fun
Even though each cookie looks all cute, I kept things SO simple. The trick is to use Christmas cookie cutters as “stencils”. Then fill in the cutter with holiday sanding sugars. I used a small reindeer, a Christmas tree, and a Santa hat.
Just place the cookie cutter on top of the frosted cookie and sprinkle a little sanding sugar inside the cutter. Shake the cookie to evenly distribute the sanding sugar.
It’s so easy and I had fun decorating! To help get the sanding sugar cleanly into each cookie cutter, I made a small funnel out of paper.
And of course, you can skip using the cookie cutters altogether. Simply decorate each cookie with your favorite assortment of holiday sprinkles. They’ll be delicious and cute either way!
Looking for other Christmas cookies? Here are my favorites:
Vanilla Ginger Shortbread Wreaths
Lastly, if you make these Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Vanilla Almond Cookies
- 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup light or dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean powder or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon hazelnut liquor , (optional)
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 large eggs
- 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Whipped Caramel Frosting
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup caramel sauce or maple syrup
- assorted holiday sprinkles, for decorating
Instructions
- 1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until combined. Add the hazelnut liquor (if using), almond extract, and eggs – 1 at a time, and mix until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, beat until combined and the dough forms a ball. 2. Divide the dough in half. Place each ball of dough on a large piece of wax or parchment paper. Shape into a log about 10" long. Wrap the dough up in the paper and place in the fridge for 3-4 hours or up to 5 days.3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.4. Unwrap the dough and cut the log into 1/4-inch slices. Arrange the slices on the prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes for soft cookies. Let cool. 5. To make the frosting. Beat together the butter and vanilla in a large bowl until extra light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add the powdered sugar and caramel or maple. Beat until whipped, about 2 more minutes.6. Frost the cooled cookies and decorate as desired. To make the shapes of your favorite Christmas cutouts, find a few small Christmas cookie cutters and gently place in the center of the frosted cookie. Sprinkle the inside of the cookie cutter with sanding sugar. Gently shake the cookie to evenly distribute the sanding sugar and then remove the cookie cutter and finish decorating. See photos for reference.7. Store cookies, covered for up to 4 days at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe? Please rate & comment below.
Love love love – this will be my new go-to sugar cookie recipe, not only at Christmas but throughout the year.
I made a batch before Christmas (with maple syrup in the frosting) and my second batch is waiting to go in the oven right now.
Hey Tanya,
Happy New Year!!🎆 I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for giving it a try and sharing your review! xT
We weren’t a fan. Followed recipe, which was easy, but left us with disappointing results. Won’t make again.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for giving these cookies a try and sharing your feedback. So sorry to hear they weren’t enjoyed. Please let me know if there is anything that I can help with! xT
I made these for Christmas and used maple syrup in the frosting (mostly cause I was too lazy to make caramel) and they were SO good! I frosted half and left half naked for the people who might not have a big sweet tooth. Simple to make, lots of flavor, and I received lots of compliments. I love how soft they are also. Definitely going to have to make these again!
Hey Erin,
Awesome!! I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you and appreciate you giving it a try! xT
These are delicious! I have been on the lookout for a soft sugar cookie with butter cream frosting recipe for years and was always underwhelmed with other recipes. Until now. This is going into the Christmas cookie files for years to come. Thank you!
Hey Emily,
Happy Monday!❄️ I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for making it! xx
These were delicious and so easy to prepare in advance for Christmas.
Hey Sophie,
Happy Monday!❄️ I am so glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a lot for making it! xx
Really good! They turned out perfect and the caramel butter cream frosting was a nice change! The kids had so much fun decorating them!
Hey Kelly,
I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Merry Christmas! 🎁🎄
I made 200 of these for a bake-off at work and placed second! They were a huge hit and I’m making another batch for the holidays. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hey Caitlin,
I appreciate you making this recipe and sharing your review, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Merry Christmas! 🎁🎄
They look dirty the table is dirty the the items around the edges look old and moldy. Not a good representation. Morticia has a cleaner kitchen.
The Grinch has arrived.
You’ve commented on the completely wrong website; clearly. Also, you don’t speak of our kitchen goddess that way. Good luck with Morticia’s cookies and kudos for always having a spotless perfect unused kitchen.
Can these be made with an alternate flour?
Hi Erin,
Yes, you can use an equal amount of gluten free flour. Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love the recipe! xT
Hey tiegen! You mentioned that homemade caramel would be good in the frosting – do you have a recipe that you suggest for that? Thanks!
Hey Hannah,
Sure, you can follow the recipe here in step 5 for homemade caramel:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/bourbon-caramel-pretzel-cookies/
Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Hi!! I’m looking to try to make this, and I see the recipe calls for “hazelnut liquor” but it’s linked to a hazelnut flavoring syrup. I’m just not sure which I’m supposed to use!
Hi Karley,
It’s totally optional, but you will want to use hazelnut liquor! Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Excited to try these! Would vanilla bean paste work instead of powder or is extract better? If so, how much paste?
Hey Laura,
I would do either the powder or the extract:) Let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xT
Could I use Christmas cutouts with these also or would they be too thick?
Hey Alisha,
If you want to do cut out cookies I would recommend following this recipe:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/christmas-lights-cookies/
I hope you love this recipe! xT
I’m really excited to try making these! I truly hope they have good flavor – they MUST! I’ve tried a few of your recipe’s and am very satisfied with them, these just look awesome! I share your sentiment about awful sugar cookies. Do you think these can still be cut into fun shapes with a cookie cutter?
I am making these today. I made the dough last week and used the cardboard rolls and froze the dough. Can I just cook them from frozen? If so, how long should they be cooked? I’m making them with my grandkids
Hey Susan
Totally, you may just need to add a minute or two to the bake time. Let me how these turn out, I hope you love this recipe! xx
Hey Kristina,
I would recommend using this recipe for cut-outs:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/christmas-lights-cookies/
Please let me know if you have any other questions, I hope you love this recipe! xx
Made these for my mom’s neighbors while visiting. They came out tasty, soft and Christmasy. I modified a little bit, used less sugar for both the batter and the frosting and they were still sweet. We were def not embarrassed dropping off our boxes of sweets.
Hey Cristina,
Happy Wednesday!!❄️ So glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it and sharing your feedback! xT