Christmas Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg and vanilla. combine flour and salt separately, then mix in with the butter/sugar mixture. chill the dough 3 hours. preheat oven to 350. roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. dip cookie cutters into flour before each use. bake on ungreased cookie sheets about 10 min or until lightly browned.
They are good this way, but even better with creamy vanilla frosting:). beat 3 cups powdered sugar with 1/3 cup softened butter. stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and about 2 tablespoons milk. color and ice as desired.
I've made these for a Hanukkah party too--cut them out with a heart-shaped cookie cutter and frosted with blue icing:). If you'd rather try a true Hanukah recipe, here's a link to Hallie's neighbor's Mandel bread. These are delicious!
How's your holiday spirit this year?
I'll be baking gingerbread cookies, nice and thin and decorated with a tangy icing made of powdered sugar and lemon juice, piped through the corner of a plastic bag.
ReplyDeleteOhhh, I'd like to have one of those with my coffee, Hallie. Will you post a recipe one day? and a picture of you piping icing with a plastic bag!
ReplyDeleteHallie, I'd love to bake with you someday, and learn how to make THIN gingerbread cookies. Mine always turn out thick and kludgy. The lemon icing sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteFruitcake here (our family and a bunch of friends actually like it), and I'll be making the candy cane cookies posted here last week, too, for my grandson.
My holiday spirit is pretty lame this year, though. Maybe making some candy canes will help.
Candy canes should definitely help Karen! (You can send us a virtual fruitcake:)--I'm not much on the real thing!)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE a good fruitcake - Karen I printed out the recipe you linked to a few blogs back, starting with Pillsbury date quick bread mix -- I'm going to try it. Here it is again if othrs missed it: http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1919,146173-240192,00.html
ReplyDeleteHallie, I usually use one box of date mix, if I can find it, and one box of nut mix. This year I have to use cranberry and nut, because I could not find the date mix anywhere.
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy it. Last year I started making it in small Bundt-shaped pans that my mother-in-law must have had since the 50's. They make nice little gifts that way.
In Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's January issue, your blog is discussed on page 34. How great is that?
ReplyDeleteThat's fabulous Shirley! what do they say??
ReplyDeleteYesterday I made the orange-chocolate bundt-ette, and the are fabulous! I treated myself to the beautiful pans featured on Jungle Red. My husband, who was whining that I wasn't making sugar cookies, declared the cupcake I made him with extra batter "the best taste ever." I have had to hide them.
ReplyDeleteI also made the candy cane cookies, but I made them too big. I doubt I would have the patience to make them right. And, I learned that I am "all thumbs" when it comes to making them. Still, they are in the freezer, and I expect the grandchildren to love them.
I am always looking for a perfect sugar cookie recipe, so I will be trying Lucy's -- thank you!
I am trying to be organized, but it is hard!! Today I want to go and see the Historical Society's decorated houses and go to an open studio at a local potter.
'Tis the season.
I like them crispy on the edges...yum!
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays all..I am revising! xxoox
My holiday spirit seems to be haunting someone else. ;) We have one of those pre-lit trees up, and some gifts bought. No cookies, though. I lost 15 lbs this fall and gained five back over Thanksgiving weekend. In fairness, Thanksgiving weekend included my husband's birthday and our wedding anniversary. (A chocolate brownie ice cream sundae at one and creme brulee at the other.) Weird to be holiday jolly while doing dietary damage control. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm just not much of a baker or a sweet eater, but I may buy some of those lovely thin gingersnaps that come in the red tin. Oh, and I love the German Christmas bread with the raisins in the dough and the marzipan in the center, so now I've added a trip to World Market to my errands today. Those will be my holiday indulgences.
ReplyDeleteLike Hallie, I'm making gingerbread cookies--bears and stars. Tomorrow, date squares.
ReplyDeleteall sound yummy
ReplyDeleteI dont do as much Christmas baking as I use to - allergic to so much that I can't make a lot of the cookies I use to bake every year - over 1200 cookies were baked every year and given to friends an co-workers, now I just do the rum cakes and sometimes snowballs and carob puffs both yummy
I've never had a better sugar cookie than the recipe my mom has. They are famous in our family. She only makes them at Christmas time, and our extended family jokes that she's not allowed in the door to the party unless she has her sugar cookies in hand. lol
ReplyDeleteI'd share the secret family recipe here, but then my mother would kill me. So would my cousin, who's been trying to weasel it out of us for years. I'll pass it down to my daughter someday to keep it going. :)
~Kimberly