Recipe: Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Recipe Source (cookies): Martha Stewart Living staff.  "Christmas Cookies."  Martha Stewart Livingno. 193, December 2009 pp. 164 and 225 - 6.  Find the original recipe online here. 

Recipe Source (icing): Darling, Jennifer Dorland.  Cookies for Christmas.  Meredith Publishing, Des Moines, 1999 p. 114

If there is a single type of cookie associated with Christmas, this would be it.  The simple sugar cookie cutout is the basic template for Christmas cookies.  This is what I remember making with my mom when we were kids.  She always made the cookies themselves, although we sometimes got to cut out the shapes, and we always decorated them.  Sometimes we got wild and elaborate with the decorations, and sometimes we didn't.  In my head, the elaborate decorations were always beautiful and never, ever tacky or overdone. 

These obviously had to be a part of our extended family tree-decorating party this year, and out of all the recipes I found for them the one from this month's Martha Stewart Livinglooked the most usable.  I did have to use a different icing recipe, though.  You see, I simply couldn't find meringue powder anywhere.  I did find powdered egg whites, but decided that I did not know enough about meringue powder to make my own.  I decided to use the icing from the Almond Sweets cookies I posted a couple of weeks ago, using vanilla instead of almond extract and doubling the recipe.  I also took the expedient of asking my husband for help with the decorating.  While in my youth my ability to decorate cookies beautifully was unparalleled, even by the greatest artists in the country, there would be no such rose-colored glasses to look back on my work now!  This is a task that John enjoys, so leaving it to him seemed like a win all around. 

Sugar Cookie Cutouts (makes 48 cookies, approx. $0.09/cookie)

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 quantities icing from Almond Sweets recipe, substituting vanilla extract for almond extract if everyone you know is sick of almond flavored everything.  (Heathens.)

Equipment:

• Baking sheets lined with foil
• Mixing bowl
• Cookie cutters
• Plastic zip-top bags
• Rolling pin
• Stand mixer
• Wire racks
• Offset spatula

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in the mixing bowl.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in the bowl of the stand mixer on medium speed until fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter mixture.
4. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add in the flour mixture.
5. Divide the dough into two balls.  Place them in zip-top plastic bags and chill at least 1 hour, or preferably overnight.
6. When you're ready to proceed, preheat your oven to 325. 
7. Break off a chunk of dough and roll it out to just under 1/4" thick.  You may want to flour your work surface; I didn't find it necessary.
8. Cut out cookies into the desired shapes.  I found the offset spatula to be very helpful in transferring them to the baking sheets as well as for decorating.
9. Bake 15 - 18 minutes, rotating once, until the edges are golden.  Allow to cool on the wire racks. 
10. Repeat as necessary until you've used as much dough as possible.  It is perfectly fine to re-roll scraps.
11. Spread the cookies with a thin layer of icing.  You can get more elaborate if you would like, using sprinkles and little candies and gel-type writing icing, but those additions did not figure into the cost per serving. 
12. Eat.