Apple Pie Spice Sugar Cookies

We make sugar cookies all the time so we can use our cookie cutters and decorate.  I wanted a different twist so I added a teaspoon of apple pie spice to the batter.  The result sugar cookies with a nice apple flavor.  You could also use pumpkin pie spice if you were in a pumpkin mood.  We decorated using store bought royal icing and sugar but I plan to experiment with homemade royal icing in the future.

Ingredients:

1 cup granulated sugar

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

12 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into small pieces at room temperature

1 egg lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or apple pie extract)

Directions:

1. Put the sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to grind.  Add the flour, apple spice, baking powder, and salt.  Pulse to combine.
2. Add the butter and pulse until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is sandy. 
3. Add the egg and vanilla and pulse until the mixture comes together in big clumps.
4. Remove the dough from the food processor and knead a few times.
5. Then divide the dough into 2 balls and wrap in plastic wrap. 
6. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour or until firm.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
8. Let the dough sit at room temperature for a few minutes.  Then place between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out until it is 1/8 inch thick. 
9. Use cookie cutters to cut out designs.
10. Transfer cookies to baking sheets using a large flat spatula. 
11. Continue to reroll the dough until you are able to get cut outs using all the dough. 
12. I used one cookie sheet per ball of dough. Try to leave some space between cookies.
13. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes.  Gently pull the parchment paper off the cookie sheet to help cookies cool faster.
14. Once cookies are cool you can decorate using royal icing, sugar, sprinkles, etc..
15. Note: I used dinosaur and ninja cookie cutters for this batch of cookies.