It is time to think about cookies - yes! The kind you make yourself! Try it and you will be so delighted with yourself: you will be known for your "cookie traditions". How great is that! Let us start with the cookie cutters - this is a great assortment for a wonderful price. Place your order!That was easy - now you can think about the arrival of this special package.
As you wait for delivery please print out this simple recipe and put it in a safe place.
AJ's Traditional Sugar Cookies
1 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
3 Cups all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
Supply List
Snowflake 5-Piece Cookie Cutter Set
KitchenAid Cookie Sheet
KitchenAid Nonstick Rolling Pin
Wilton Supreme Cake Decorating Set
Beat together butter and sugar until fluffy; add egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Add flour combined with the baking powder a bit at a time.
Divide the dough into four parts, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. (You can leave it overnight, all day or at least an hour - you just want the dough to be firm so that it will roll out well.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease baking sheets or if you like simply line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board or on your lightly floured countertop. ¼ inch thick makes a crispy cookie and 1/3 inch thick is a softer cookie.
Cut out shapes with your new tradition makers - those cute little cookie cutters and place the cookies one by one on the baking sheet (I like to do each sheet with the same design as they will be of uniform size and bake most evenly that way). You can lightly swish the bottoms of the cookie cutters in flour so they will not stick to the cookie dough - some people like to use a non stick spray on the cookie cutters.
Bake for 7-8 minutes until the edges of the cookies are ever so slightly brown. Remove from oven, cool for a minute and transfer to a wire rack (Place the cookies on the rack so the entire bottom of the cookie is flat and will cool properly and hold its shape).
If you like you then can stack the cookies, wrap them and freeze them to decorate with frosting at a later date - or you can decorate them any time they are cool. If you want to keep it very simple (and just as much fun) simply sprinkle them with color sugars and the cute little decorations you will find in the holiday aisles of the store before you bake them.
This recipe makes about two dozen good sized cookies - you might want to double the recipe - and double your fun!
If you do not have a rolling pin - this is the time to purchase one! I like to buy an extra bag of flour and an extra pound of butter to have on hand when the cookie making urge comes along. You can buy the butter now and store it in the freezer. If you plan to decorate with icings then buy a large bag of confectionary sugar and some meringue powder for the frosting part. You will see a lot of cute decorating ideas in the holiday ads - I save those and keep them with my cookie recipe and the cookie cutters and then have fun improvising from the colored visuals.
This is a nice royal icing recipe if you want to decorate your cookies with creative glazes, swirls, piping, stars and artsy embellishments. These highly decorated cookies are a great gift, they look lovely hung on the Christmas tree, and are one of my favorite holiday traditions.
Royal Icing
3 3/4 cups sifted confectionary sugar
3 T meringue powder
6 T warm water
Beat 4 to 5 minutes with an electric mixer.
Have several little bowls handy to make your favorite colors and keep each bowl covered with a wet paper towel. Perhaps you would like to purchase a nice little set of frosting tips and bags. I like this set a lot - and it will last for a long, long time - another tradition!
