Christmas Sugar Cookies
Recipes are one way in which love passes through generations.
Taste is a powerful reminder of people, places and special celebrations.
Given to me by a dear family friend, Jean Reno
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup Crisco
1 egg
¼ cup milk
½ teaspoon lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In the bowl of your mixer, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to combine. Add the Crisco, egg, milk and lemon juice. Mix well to form a soft dough. Gather the dough together and divide into two thick disks. Wrap each disk in plastic. Refrigerate until chilled, about 1 ½ hours. (The day can be prepared up to 1 day ahead.)
To roll out the cookies, work with one disk at a time, keeping the other one refrigerated. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature until malleable enough to roll out without cracking, 5-10 minutes. Unwrap the dough and place on a floured work surface. Lightly sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll out the dough 1/8” thick, or slightly thicker for softer cookies.
Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and transfer to cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Gently knead the scraps together and form another disk. Wrap and chill for about 5 minutes before rolling out again to cut more cookies. Repeat with 2nd refrigerated disk.
Bake just until the edges of the cookies are barely beginning to turn golden, about 10 minutes. Do not over bake. Let stand on the cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Decorate as desired with Decorating Icing or Frosting.
Tip: Cookies can be baked up to 1 week ahead, stored in airtight containers at room temperature. If you want to freeze these, freeze undecorated baked cookies, as the icing won’t freeze well in the freezer. They can be frozen for up to a month. About a week before you plan on serving the cookies, defrost them, decorate, and store in airtight containers at room temperature.
Decorating Icing
When you want a thin, slick opaque surface on your cookies that can be sprinkled with colored sugar or other goodies, make this simple icing. Makes about ¾ cup, enough for about 3 dozen cookies.
Ingredients:
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
3 – 4 tablespoons milk, as needed
Food coloring, as needed (optional)
Directions:
Sift the confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl. Using a rubber spatula, blend enough milk into the sugar to reach the desired consistency. If desired, divide the icing into individual bowls or disposable paper cups and tint with food coloring. When not using, cover each bowl tightly with plastic wrap or press a moist paper towel directly on the icing surface to prevent a crust from forming.
Sugar Cookie Frosting
Ingredients:
1/3 cup softened butter
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
3 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, divided
3 Tablespoons milk
Directions:
Mix butter, vanilla and 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Add remaining 2 cups of confectioners’ sugar mixing well.