In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4 cups All-Purpose Flour, 1 teaspoon Baking Powder, ½ teaspoon Salt
In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the unsalted butter and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and the vanilla extract.
1 cup Unsalted Butter, 2 cups Granulated Sugar, 2 Large Eggs, 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Add in the whisked dry mixture and mix on low speed until it's well blended.
Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 1 hour (or overnight) in the refrigerator. See notes for an alternative way of chilling the dough.
Adjust the oven rack to the 2nd level mark (just above center) and preheat the oven to 325ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and set aside.
Roll out the dough (½″-⅝″ thickness) onto a clean, lightly floured work surface. Using a lightly floured cookie stamp or cookie cutter, stamp out each cookie and place it on the parchment-lined baking sheet. For a well-defined cookie shape, chill the cookies in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes before placing them in the oven to bake.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes (my cookies did well at 10 minutes) at 325ºF. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread for up to a week.
Notes
The number of cookies this recipe yields will depend on the size of your cookie cutter or cookie stamp. Using this snowflake cookie stamp gave me 9 dozen cookies.
After making the cookie dough, instead of chilling it as a whole, you can divide it into two sections, then roll out each one between 2 sheets of lightly floured wax paper to a ½″-⅝″ thickness. Chill the slabs of dough in either the refrigerator or freezer.
If you're chilling the cookie dough in the bowl, only chill it in the refrigerator.
Recipe adapted from A Recipe Sampler by St. Andrew's Evangelical Lutheran Church cookbook.