Christmas Sugar Cookies

Ingredients for Cookie dough

4 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Procedure

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, nutmeg, and salt.
2. In a large bowl combine butter, sugar, eggs and flavoring.

3. Cream on Speed no. 7 for 2 minutes.

4. Turn to speed no. 3.
5. Add milk and flour mixture gradually beating until blended (3 minutes)
6. Refrigerate dough until easy to handle
7. Set oven to 375 F to preheat
8. Grease Cookie Sheets
9. Roll dough on lightly floured board (Tip: in this case, I rolled straight onto the cookie sheet)

10. For crisp cookies roll to 1/8 inch thick
For soft cookies, roll to 1/4 inch thick

(Note: I prefer crisp cookies because I can hang them on garlands)

12. Cut with floured cookie cutter

13. Place on prepared cookie sheets, brush with milk (optional)

(note- since I rolled it on the cookie sheet, it makes dough handling easier)

14. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes until edges become light brown

15. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on brown paper or paper towelling

YIELD: 10 dozen 1/8 inch thick cookies

Icing for decoration

3 Egg Whites (1/3 cup)
3 to 4 cups Confectioners Sugar
(this yields around 4 cups of icing which you can use for Christmas cookie decorating)

Procedure

1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

2. add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3. Add confectioner sugar until well blended

To decorate
You will need sprinkles, icing and imagination. I assume you know how to use an icing tip. If not, then I will have to teach it in another entry.

Prepare sprinkles. I buy my sprinkles from “Chocolate Lovers”

Just outline the shapes, or ice and add sprinkles

After the icing has set, I wrap the cookies individually and hang them on the Christmas garlands