When it comes to sugar cookies, there are good ones and bad ones. My favorite happen to be the ones you find in a grocery store that are light and fluffy, and a little bit thicker.

For Valentine’s Day, I decided to make cookies for everyone I know here in DC and had looked at tons of recipes trying to find one that would give me this perfect end product. I ended up settling on the “Olinger family recipe” with a few small tweaks. My coworker had brought her family cookies in at the holidays, and I had fond memories. And I wasn’t let down! They were a big hit!

Ingredients (makes about 4 dozen)
Cookies-
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Frosting-
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
Food coloring and/or sprinkles for decorating

1. To get started, cream the butter and sugar in your electric mixer. Scrape down the sides and then add the egg and vanilla and beat again.

2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Now add the flour mixture and the sour cream to the electric mixer alternating back and forth.

Once it is all mixed, take the dough out and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill it for one hour. If you need, you can chill it overnight, but then make sure you leave it out for a few minutes before you roll it out.

3. Once your dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 425 and prepare a counter (or cutting board) to roll out the dough. You want to dust your work space with flour. Then roll the dough out. You don’t want it to be too thin. Now use whatever cookie cutter you want to cut the cookies.

4. Place the cut out dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Cook the cookies for 4-6 minutes. You want to make sure not to over cook them, and you may need to cook the later batches for less time.

5. Now, while your cookies are cooling, prepare the frosting. Combine the butter, vanilla, and a third of the powdered sugar in your electric mixer. Now add the milk and the rest of the powdered sugar alternating back and forth. You may want to scrape down the sides and then mix again. Make sure to beat at a high speed to get the frosting nice and creamy.

6. If you want to die the frosting different colors, place some into different bowls and then add whatever food coloring you like.

7. Now let the fun part begin. Start decorating!! I also bought some fun sprinkles and a frosting pen to help decorate.

Here are some frat-tastic ones I made for a care package for a particular college student I know.