Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

Sugar Cookie Recipe number one
Cookies:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup soft butter
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 3 tbsp cream
• 1 tsp vanilla (can substitute almond extract) Icing
  
  • 1/3 cup Crisco (transfat-free) or a 1/3 cup of softened butter
  • 1 pound of confectioners sugar
  • About 1/4 cup of milk
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Method

1 Sift dry ingredients, cut in butter and add other ingredients. Blend thoroughly; chill for several hours.
2 Break off a piece of dough the size of an orange and pat it flat in your hand. Using a rolling pin, roll on dough on floured board (best to use a 2/1 ration of flour/sugar - 4 Tbsp flour mixed with 2 Tbsp sugar) or between wax paper. (It helps if you flour both sides of the dought.) Roll out to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out and put on silpat-lined or ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 5-8 minutes at 400 F. Remove the cookies from the oven as soon as you see them turning color at the base of the cookie. Let cool completely.
3 Mix icing ingredients together until smooth. Separate into different bowls, add food coloring to achieve various colors. Spread on cookies with a butter knife, use cake decorating piping equipment to add decorative accents. If you want the sprinkle type decorating candies to stick, brush the cookie with clear Karo syrup and then sprinkle.
Makes 5 dozen cookies.

Undecorated cookies

The icing begins

Using sprinkles

The finished product.
Adapted from the recipe for Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies, Huntsville Heritage Cookbook, 1967, The Junior League of Huntsville, AL, Lowry Printing, Inc.

Sugar Cookie Recipe number 2

Cookie:

• 1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Icing:

• 2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup milk
• Food coloring

1 Beat the butter and sugar together for 1 minute. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract, beat until incorporated. Combine dry ingredients and add to batter, stirring to blend.
2 Divide dough in half, form 2 balls. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
3 Using a rolling pin, roll out dough (about 1/2 of one dough ball at a time) on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8" thickness. Dip cookie cutters into flour; cut out shapes. Place cookies on silpat lined or lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375°F for 7-8 minutes.
4 To make icing, combine sugar, almond extract and just enough milk (about 1/4 cup) to make the frosting the consistency of thin glue. Pour icing into shallow bowls wide enough for dipping cookies. Add food coloring.
5 To decorate, dip the topside of each cookie into the icing. Remove quickly and let icing drip of excess back into the icing bowl. Let dry. Pour additional colored frosting into pastry piping, or use a plastic sandwich bag with the tip of one corner nicked off. Gently squeeze frosting on to cookies in whatever patterns you choose.
Makes 2-3 dozen.

Credits go to: Simply Recipes http://www.simplyrecipes.com