When I was still in school back at home during the Michigan winters, Christmas time was a really big deal in the house. My mom would bake and bake and bake for days so that when we'd have Christmas dinner with the 33 of us in town, there were cookies allllllllllllll over the house! I'll bet she made more than 10 different kinds of cookies. And she never made just one batch of each kind. She made enough cookies for us, the family, cookie plates for each of our teachers, and quite often dinners for the Church Council, too.
Today, I'm going to give you the recipe for my Grandma's Roll-Out Sugar Cookies. So often we'd get plates of cookies with other Christmas shaped cookies that just didn't taste as good to us. We were spoiled. Grandma had a knack of finding recipes that were really good! This is no exception to that fact.
***Note, this recipe must be chilled ahead of time to make the dough cold. You could put it in the freezer, but I would recommend that you chill it overnight for the best results. The recipe says one hour, but if your refrigerator is opened as often as mine is at home, it's not going to be cold enough.
Roll Out Sugar Cookies
by Grandma Brown
3/4 C. Shortening (Crisco)
1 C. Sugar (white, granulated)
2 Eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C. milk
3 1/2 C. flour (I use unbleached)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. salt
Mix dry ingredients together with a wire whisk. Add to wet ingredients and knead into a ball. Chill thoroughly before rolling out. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and use ~3" cookie cutters. Transfer to an UNGREASED cookie sheets and bake in a preheated oven @ 400*F for 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
ICING:
3 C. Sifted Confectioner's Sugar
3/4 tsp. Salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbls. water or cream
mix all together as you need it. This will dry rather quickly, so use an assortment of colored sugars and other decorating choices for your holiday wishes.
3 Tbls. water or cream
mix all together as you need it. This will dry rather quickly, so use an assortment of colored sugars and other decorating choices for your holiday wishes.
While we generally keep this recipe for our Christmas baking, I have been known to make them for other holidays with different shaped cookie cutters. When my oldest daughter was in kindergarten, her class had many Valentine, St. Patty's day, Dreildels and other cookies at snack time with of this recipe. Just change your cookie cutters and the colors of decorations and you'll have a lot of hungry fingers reaching for more cookies.
On the knitting front...I just need a button for this KBB Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel
And this Hail to the ... Kitchen Hanging Hand Towel is well underway....
The knitting with datelines...is heading toward a finish line! How are you all doing with your deadlines? I thank you all for your comments about the blanket and the pasties. Just in case you're wondering...they were really good! Lip-smacking good! And a cookie to finish it off? YUMMY! Isn't this time of year really delicious? Happy Hanukkah for those of you who celebrate!
