If you’re reading this recipe, I need you to agree to not tell anyone related to me about it. If their last name is Rochester or Sipe, keep walking. This recipe is between us until Christmas morning has come and gone. Pinky promise?

Now that we’ve all entered the solemn vow of the pinky promise, I’ll explain myself.

Before this year, sugar cookies have always been the kind of thing I make often but only ever on an impulse. I didn’t plan the sugar cookies. The sugar cookies found me.

This was especially true when my sweet tooth was acting up and there happened to be butter and sugar around the house. I would throw them in the bowl of my mixer and less than 10 minutes later, I usually have cookie dough to snack on while other cookies are baking.

In those days, I never used the same recipe. Each time I baked sugar cookies, I would just look up “sugar cookie recipe” online and follow the whims of Google that day. I never kept track of what recipes I used, or how to adapt or change them. I baked with my heart.

But with Christmas coming up, I finally decided that enough was enough. It was time to buckle down. This is the first year that I’ve planned to bake gifts for family and friends, and I needed to stop with the wild experimenting. It was time to make the best version of sugar cookies I could possibly make.

Slowly, systematically, I started working through different recipes to see what made a sugar cookie successful. What gave it that perfect, crumbly and soft but not too dry texture that ignited my taste buds so often? How much butter is too much butter? Is there such a thing?

Eventually, I found one that I really loved and that I plan on making for friends and family for Christmas, Christmas sprinkle cookies from The Palatable Life. They are so soft and have the perfect fluffy texture. They’re just little scoops of perfection.

Plus, the fun part about these is that they have red and green sprinkles mixed into them, which means that they’re fun for both adults and kids alike. The sprinkles can also give a fun crunch to the cookies, which gives them enough contrast to keep snacking on and keep snacking on and keep snacking on until all of them are gone.

Not that I have any experience doing that.

I’m planning on baking a fresh batch of these cookies right before Hunter and I leave to see our relatives this weekend, packaging them up and handing them out to just bring a little extra sweetness to the season.

But I won’t judge you if you bake them before Christmas for yourself, too. As long as you remember your pinky promise.

SECRET SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sprinkles

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add butter, white sugar and brown sugar to bowl and mix butter and sugar for about 2-3 minutes with mixer.
■ Add the egg and vanilla and mix until fully combined. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until just combined until no streaks of flour remain. Add the sprinkles and mix on low until distributed.
■ Use a large cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Top each dough ball with a few extra sprinkles. Bake for about 7-9 minutes until the edges are set (they might still look slightly doughy in the center).
■ Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

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