Christmas Sugar Cookies (Dolly Parton's Recipe!)

Cream sugar and butter together in a large bowl of a stand mixer afixed with an S blade or with a hand mixer. Mix until pale yellow, fluffy, and well-incorporated.
Add the egg yolks and lemon zest and mix until well-combined.
Sift the flour over the wet ingredients, and mix just until combined.
Knead together very gently until it forms enough of a ball to plop onto a piece of plastic wrap. Work the dough just enough to get it to stick together, but be careful not to overdo it. Honestly, I get so paranoid about overworking the dough that I pile the crumbs onto the plastic wrap, fold it up around the mound, and press it together that way.
Completely wrap the dough with the plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least three hours.
When you're ready to pull the dough out and prepare it, preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Roll out dough - I go as thin as 1/8 inch, but I prefer about 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes, adding additional flour as necessary to avoid sticking. Place cookie shapes on a cookie sheet (no need to grease).
Bake just until the cookies start to turn pinky beige around the edges, around 8 minutes. Let cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, then move to wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, add the powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, corn syrup, and the vanilla to a small mixing bowl. Use a wire whisk or a fork to mix it well. If it's too thick, add more milk a teaspoon at a time. You want the icing to be thin enough to be pipeable but thick enough to hold a line. Transfer the icing into a piping bag with tip or a Ziploc bag with the end snipped off, and pipe the icing onto the cookies. Let the icing sit until it hardens before storing or assembling on cookie plates.
Cookies keep up to one week in an airtight container.

Christmas Sugar Cookies (Dolly Parton's Recipe!)

Ingredients

For the sugar cookies:

For the icing:

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition Facts