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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Mom's Famous Sugar Cookies



Remember how I talked about my mom's famous praline mix? Well this is another one of those recipes she's known for. People have come to expect her decorated sugar cookies at every holiday and special occasion. In fact, she even made 250 of these for mine and Ryan's wedding because we knew these would go over so much better than any dinky favor (and they did!). These cookies, while time-consuming with the chilling, the rolling, the cutting, and the decorating, are worth every bit of extra effort. Try these and I promise you won't be needing any other sugar cookie recipe anytime soon!

I used a small-ish star cookie cutter and this made a TON of cookies (70-80 I believe!). Decorating all those cookies took quite some time (I give my mom so much credit for all the years she's been decorating these!), but I needed a bunch so I could bring half to work as a thank you to my group (just rotated into a new group) and half for our Wednesday night community group. People in both places loved them...in fact, at work they were gone before lunch! Told you they're good :)

Mom's Famous Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
-3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
-1 cup sugar
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 stick of butter
-1 stick of margarine (be sure to use a stick of both, this is key!!)
-1 egg, slightly beaten
-3 tbsp cream
-1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Sift flour with sugar, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. Cut in butter/margarine, using an electric mixer or pastry blender, until particles are fine.
3. Add egg, cream, and vanilla extract. Blend thoroughly.
4. Chill for at least a few hours (I find it's best to chill overnight).
5. Roll dough out on floured surface (you'll need lots of flour! This dough can be very sticky and you'll need to knead it in your hands for a few minutes before rolling it out)
6. Roll to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes.
7. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 400 degrees for 5-8 minutes (do NOT overcook these! I actually only bake mine for 4 1/2-5 minutes).

To frost, mix powdered sugar and half and half until desired consistency is reached (start with the powdered sugar, which you'll need a lot more of, and very slowly add half and half in small amounts). Add food coloring and stir. Frost cookies and sprinkle with jimmies!