Holiday Sugar Cookies

I love any excuse to make these.
For me, it is a three day project. I make the dough one day, roll and cut and bake the second day, and then frost and decorate them the night before I'm going to serve them. I for sure make these every Christmas and Easter.
This is my mom's recipe for "Pie Crust Cookies". I remember helping her decorate these into the wee hours. I always have my eye out for new cute cookie cutters and fun decorator sugars and candies. The way I decorate these is just simple because sometimes I think "less is more". My favorites are angels with coconut wings(not pictured) at Christmas and snowflakes with edible glitter or Rudolph with a red hot for a nose but they are all cute in their own way.  Since Christmas 2001, I've been decorating my Christmas star cookies to look like American flags as a way to commemorate 9/11. I've made the American flag stars for 4th of July or Memorial Day too and hearts of course for Valentines Day. I do several different pastel colors of icing for butterflies, crosses, flowers and bunnies and coconut for the lambs with raw (brown) sugar for the face and legs for Easter.They are just so fun and taste as good as they look...which sadly isn't always the case for sugar cookies.

Cookies:
Ingredients and Directions:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup butter flavored crisco
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix above ingredients together with a pastry blender

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

With an electric mixer, mix the sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt into the above mixture until ball of dough forms. Refrigerate several hours to overnight before rolling.
For best results, roll out on a lightly floured pastry cloth or silicone mat. Cut out with your favorite cookie cutters and bake similar sized cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 4-5 minutes* in a preheated 350 degree oven. Cool on pan for 1 minute before removing to cool on wire racks.

*the time will vary based on the size of the cookies and how thin you roll the dough. remove when the edges are set but not brown.

Frost with powdered sugar icing (recipe follows) and decorate immediately with sugars and candies 

Powdered sugar icing:

• powdered sugar
• scalded milk (heated to just before boiling)
• vanilla extract

I never measure these ingredients. I just add a teaspoon at a time of the milk with the vanilla to 1 - 2 cups of powdered sugar until it's the right consistency. It should be pretty thin. I use a small spoon to frost the cookies. Sprinkle with decorator sugar etc. immediately.
Unfrosted cookies can be frozen. These are best if you frost them the night before you plan to serve them to give the frosting time to set but not too long for them to get stale.  Store frosted cookies in an airtight container with wax paper between single layers of cookies.

• all the appropriate decorator sugars and candies to decorate the cookies

Snappy Gingersnaps

I love gingersnaps! It's like fall disguised as a cookie. This is a great recipe that's morphed into the perfect gingersnap over my years of baking these. I always make these cookies when I make my pumpkin cheesecake dip.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger (or 2- 3 tablespoons fresh grated*)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• pinch cayenne pepper (optional) I like to add this to give them a little extra 'snap'
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. preheat oven to 350
2. cream butter and sugars
3. add egg and vanilla and beat well
4. stir in molasses and mix well *if using fresh ginger add it here
5. sift together flour and spices twice
6. add to molasses mixture and beat until dough forms
7. chill dough about 30 minutes
8. roll into small uniform balls (I use my kitchen scale to measure 15 grams per cookie)
9. roll in white sugar and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet
10. flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass
11. bake in the preheated oven for exactly 9 minutes (longer if you like your ginger snaps more crispy)
12. remove to wire racks to cool completely