Sugar Cookies

How very convenient that I've recommenced my recipe blogging on the eve of Vintage Recipe Thursday (which, at the moment, is a whole 4 minutes away). This recipe is credited to my grandmother and is the one that my family has always used for our Christmas cookies. They're simple, they're yummy, and, best of all, they're fun to decorate.

circa 1995

This year (err, I guess it's last year now), due to extreme busy-ness, the only traditional Christmas baking I did was to make cinnamon rolls (which is a recipe for another Thursday); I completely failed to make Christmas cookies. However, I did make these sugar cookies back in November, due to a sudden patriotic whim on Election Day. The goal was to decorate the cookies with red, white and blue frosting...but...as I have yet to succeed in keeping red food coloring from turning pink, I made an executive decision that a temporary alteration in our national colors was in order. Pink's pretty, right? :)

Gramma Dunwoody's Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup milk

4 tsp. baking powder

5 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. vanilla

1. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar.

2. Add vanilla and beaten eggs.

3. In smaller bowl, sift flour and baking powder.

4. Add milk and flour mixture alternately to butter/sugar mixture.

5. Roll dough on floured surface.

6. Cut with fun cookie cutters (or, if you don't have cookie cutters, use the rim of a cup/wine glass).

7. Bake at 400 degrees, about 6-7 minutes.

8. Allow cookies to cool before frosting.

Icing

1 box powdered sugar (approximately 3 3/14 cups)

2/3 stick melted butter

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. salt

3-4 tbsp. milk

Mix all ingredients together. Add food coloring as desired.

Spread icing onto cookies.

Happy baking! :)