By now, with all of our Christmas cookies recipes - Gingersnaps (two ways!), Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Peppermint Drops - your cookie plate is going to look very appealing when you put it out with a nice variety for Santa on Christmas Eve. But Christmas just isn't quite right unless you get to spend some time decorating cookies. Not only is it a great creative outlet, but you get to eat the results.

Rather than opt for the traditional gingerbread men with royal icing, especially in light of the fact that I made gingery cookies last week, I opted to make some of my favorite Vanilla Cutout Cookies. These cookies are soft, but not cake-like, and are very easy to make. They use both butter and buttermilk in dough, both of which add a richness to the cookie, and vanilla extract with a touch of almond to keep the flavor bright. As always, I recommend using a very high quality vanilla extract or something even more vanilla-y, such as vanilla bean crush or vanilla paste to boost the vanilla flavor.

One final thing that I will note is that these cookies are not all that sweet because they are meant to be decorated with icing or sprinkles. I used a simple confectioners' sugar icing (recipe below), but you can also apply sprinkles or colored sugar to the cutouts before you bake them.

Vanilla Cutout Cookies
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter. Beat in buttermilk, egg and extracts until smooth. With the mixer on low speed (or working by hand), add in the flour mixture, mixing until no flour remains. Divide the dough into two pieces and wrap each in plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375F.
Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll out to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Use a lightly floured cookie cutter (I used 1-2 in. shaped cutters) to make desired shapes. Transfer cookies to a parchment lined baking sheet. Reroll remaining dough, chilling for a few minutes if it becomes too warm to handle easily, and cut a second round of shapes.
Bake for 6-7 minutes at 375F, until the edges are slightly firm to the touch but cookies are not browned (the bottom of the cookies will be light brown). If your cookie cutters are large, you may need an additional minute or two of baking time.
Cool completely on a wire rack before icing (below).
Makes 4-5 dozen, depending on cookie cutter size.

Simple Confectioners Sugar Icing
4 cups confectioners sugar, divided
2 tbsp milk per bowl
1/2 tsp vanilla extract per bowl
white, red, green and blue food coloring

Place 1 cup of sugar in each of 4 small bowls. Add 2 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla and a few drops of your desired food color to each bowl. Mix thoroughly with a fork until icing is very smooth and a good consistency. You will want it to be thinner for filling in large spaces and thicker for making clear lines. Add extra milk if necessary.
Scrape each color into a small zip-lock plastic bag.
Snip the corner of the bag to produce a point and ice cookies as desired.

Variation: use lemon or orange juice instead of milk for flavored icing.